Hard Knock Life
by fallen-angel-scorn
Summary: Ariana Carter. A 13 year old punk who seems destined to follow in Yusuke Urameshi's steps. Her life is going great and all, except for four guys who want to make her life Hell. What can she do to stop it? Inu x HP x YYH crossover. Abusive scenes
1. Survival of the Strongest

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story except for Ariana, Jeff   
  
and Cheryl, ok? I do not own Harry Potter anything, Inuyasha anything or YuYu Hakusho  
  
anything (cept merchandise) since I am not J.K Rowling, Rumiko Takahasi or Yoshihiro  
  
Togashi!!!!   
  
Now that that is settled...............................  
  
Hard Knock Life  
  
Ok, background check, your looks come later on, so for now, your personality. Your name  
  
is Ariana. You are 12 years old. Your parents died when you were a baby. Your foster dad  
  
is an abusive bastard. ou are 12 years old. Since you are abused, you are very distant and are  
  
known as the class goth. You always wear long sleeves and baggy pants to cover the cuts  
  
and bruises that he gives you. You are a very good student and have straight A's. You have  
  
no idea that you are a demon. The guys are the same age. Got all that? Good. Now on with  
  
the story!!  
  
'Oh god, Jeff is gonna kill me!' you think as you run down the sidewalk as the sun is sinking.  
  
When you get to the house, you quietly open the door. "Where were you?" asks Jeff (your  
  
foster dad). 'I-I got caught up at s-school' "Didn't I tell you to ALWAYS be in before  
  
dark?" 'Y-yes, please, it wont happen again!' you say tearing "Oh, but I know it wont happen  
  
again!" he says viciously and throws you into a wall. Before you can get up, he kicks you in   
  
the stomach. He does this several times then tells you to get up. Timidly, you do what he  
  
says. When you are upright, he kicks the back of your knee and leaves you crumpled on   
  
the floor crying. You crawl to your room, close the door and collapse on your bed.  
  
The next morning you get up and put on a balck hoodie with a sliver dragon on it and some  
  
pants with chains that make an x on the back. You quietly pick up your bag and walk out  
  
the door. As you wait at the bus stop, you hear a rustling in the bushes. 'Who's there?'  
  
you ask. There is more rustling, so you decide to check it out. The rustling gets faster  
  
as you approach. When you part the leaves you find..........................a bunny. It flees when   
  
it sees you and you breath a sigh of relief. When the bus finally comes, you get on and   
  
make your way to the back of the bus. When you get to school, you go directly to  
  
homeroom and sit in your seat in the back next to the window. The period goes by fast  
  
with you doodling since you already understood the lesson. You go through you other   
  
classes until lunch, when you go outside to sit under a tree and be alone. When the bell   
  
rings, you go to language arts, your favorite class. Mr. Cross is really nice and gave you   
  
the assaignment list at the beginning of the year, which you finished in about a month.  
  
You finished it so quickly because you tend to lock yourself up in your room do to Jeff.  
  
Mr. Cross lets you sort of be a teacher's assisstant. Today, you go and grab the tests   
  
sitting on his desk and a red pen and retreat to your seat in the back to begin grading.  
  
The bell rings again and class strats. Today Mr. Cross is talking about the novel the class  
  
is reading, 'Animal Farm'. You listen for any additional information he may supply for  
  
the test. When the period is over, you go up and put the tests on his desk, then head to  
  
6th period. That class goes the same as ever, so Im skipping to bell.   
  
When the bell rings,you go to your locker, grab your stuff and head out the door onto   
  
the road. When you are about 2 blocks from your house, you hear the rustling again. This   
  
time you just shrug it off and keep walking. Just then, somebody grabs you from behind,  
  
clasping their hand over you mouth. "Do anything rash and you loose that pretty little head"   
  
and they take out a switchblade and place it at your throat. Well the guy literally drags you  
  
into this clearing where you see several other peole with crowbars, lead pipes and all sorts  
  
of other lovely things like that. The guy pushes you into the middle of the circle and  
  
says "Looky here boys, some poor lost little goth, kinda pretty for a kid too, too bad we're  
  
gonna have to mess her up, huh?" His cronies nod evilly and then one comes at you, his  
  
crowbar raised. 'HELP!!!!!!' you scream. "Aww, is the wittle guwl scawed?" asks the guy  
  
using a VERY bad baby voice. You try to run, but one of them grabs you and slams you in   
  
the chest with a pipe. You gasp in pain, trying to breath. You fall to the ground and try as  
  
you might, you can't get up. The people see this as an oppertunity to punch you, kick you,  
  
hit you with various items......When you are on the verge of blacking out, you hear shrieks  
  
of pain from the bullies. You chance a look up and a guy with black hair fighting them off   
  
of you. You feebily try and kick one, but fail miserably. Finally, the beatings stop and you  
  
look up to see the bullies -and your savior- gone. Shakily, you stand up and hobble over to   
  
where they dropped your bag, pick it up and continue on you way home.   
  
By now, it is way past dark, and you know you are in for it at home. You know that even if   
  
you climb through your window, the next morning you would get beaten twice as hard for   
  
trying to get away with it. So, you walk through your front door. "You don't learn very   
  
fast, do you?" says Jeff angrily. Before you can reply, he slaps you, "Don't try and back   
  
talk to me young lady!" he cries and puches you in the stomach. Doubled over in pain, you  
  
tay to run away, noly to find him holding your ankle. "Your disciplining isn't through yet!"  
  
he says angrily. 'Oh yes it is!' you cry with a sudden burst of replenished energy. You run  
  
up the stairs, into your room and slam the door, locking it. Within seconds, he is banging  
  
on your door. You scream as the hinges on your door come loose and a purple faced Jeff   
  
standing in the doorway. He runs into the room and slaps you with such force that you fall  
  
over. He beats you harder than he has ever beaten you before. When he sees that you are  
  
loosing conciousness, he says "NOW your disciplining is over!" and leaves you there. Finally,  
  
everything goes black. (this tends to happen a lot if you haven't noticed)  
  
When you wake up, its early morning and still dark. You go to your windowsill, sit down  
  
and cry. Suddenly, out of the corner of your eye, you see two boys fighting a few blocks   
  
from your house, in the clearing that those guys pummled you in. Then you realize, one of   
  
the boys is the one that helped you. Seeing your chance to thank him, you carefully climb  
  
out of your window and jog to the clearing. As you approach, you realize that one boy has   
  
horns and doesn't look to friendly. The boy who helped you looks at you with an urgent  
  
gleam in his eyes that seems to be saying "Get away! While you still can!" But you stand   
  
your ground. All of a sudden, the boy is throttled into a wall by a weird light. He hits the   
  
wall HARD. 'NOOOO!' you cry. You close your eyes and scream so loud it hurts your own   
  
ears. When you open your eyes, you see the evil boy laying on the ground, not moving,   
  
covered in ash. The guy who helped you is also on the ground. You rush over to him. 'Hey  
  
mister, are you ok?' you ask worried for the one person who ever defended you. He just  
  
groans and tries to get up, but fails and falls backwards again. But this time, instead of   
  
hitting the ground completely, you catch his head. 'I just wanted to say thanks for saving me  
  
yesterday' you say cautiously. "I'm the one who should be thanking you kid." he replies.   
  
You hesitate, but then feeling bold say 'Well I wouldn't have been able to do anything if   
  
you hadn't saved me.' "Well, can't argue with that logic!" he says, smirking. "Hey kid, what   
  
is your name?" 'Oops, how rude of me! I'm Ariana, I'm sorry for not saying so earlier!'  
  
you say, worried that he will hit you for being impudent. "I'm Yusuke. It isn't really a big   
  
deal not introducing yourself earlier, it isn't like I'm gonna hit you for it!" he says joking,  
  
but you just look down. Finally you say 'Thanks again, I'd better be going.' "Ariana, let me   
  
walk you home, that guy has friends!" he says kindly. 'NO, it's alright, I'll be fine!' you reply.  
  
Yusuke reaches out and takes your arm. You shrink back in fear, Jeff grabbed your arm   
  
like that sometimes. "Ariana, can I see your arm, you look pained..." he asks. 'No, my arm   
  
is fine, really!' you reply. "Ariana, if those guys hurt you worse than I thought yesterday,  
  
I need to know, it's important!" Before you can protest anymore, Yusuke rolls down your   
  
armwarmer and looks at your injured arm, which is practically all black and blue, and covered  
  
in cuts and scrapes, induced by Jeff mostly. "Jeez Ariana, they really did that much damage?"   
  
You don't reply, just stare at your feet. "Ariana did they even do this, or did someone   
  
else?" he asks kindly. Again, you just stare silently at the grass. "Ok fine, don't answer me,   
  
but I AM walking you home!!! This time you don't protest. So you start walking back towards  
  
your house. During that time, he manages to get your nickname out of you -Ari-.  
  
When you get to your front door, you give him a hug and say hurriedly 'I'll see you at   
  
Sarayashiki (yes you both go there) now go, quick!!!' "Why, what's the big deal?" 'If you  
  
must know, stick around behind that tree, but hurry up!!!' As soon as Yusuke is hidden behind  
  
the tree, Jeff, almost on queue, swings open the door and grabs your arm the way Yusuke  
  
just did, but with more force. You yelp in pain as he drags you through the front door and   
  
slams it behind him. Quietly, Yusuke sneaks to the window, just in time to see you throttled  
  
into the coffee table and slam your head against the wood. Jeff walks over as you grimace  
  
in pain and begin his escapade of kicking and punching. With a bit of the energy you have left,  
  
you glance towards the window and see an enraged Yusuke there. As everything goes black,  
  
you hear the glass window shatter. (yes again, you're 12, you can take a lot, but your body  
  
is still pretty weak from all the abuse you take)  
  
When you wake up, you are in a king sized purple bed in a HUGE black room that has stars   
  
all over the walls making it seem like it is night outside in there, until you look down and see  
  
the dark purple carpet. You clap your hands and a light turns on. You survey the room. In   
  
one corner you see a big stereo system with a whole hoard of cds, which you go and look at.   
  
You discover they are all your favorite bands (keep in mind that you are gothic and you are  
  
a very morbid person. I will mention the cds later they are rock, deal with it if you are not a  
  
fan of rock :P.....) In another corner you see a big bookshelf filled with books. In another  
  
part of the room lies a cabinet which you investigate and find is filled with weapons of all   
  
sorts. In the last corner is a big dresser. You don't look in it, since you don't know whose   
  
room this is and you don't want to anger anyone by snooping in the wrong places. Other than  
  
that, you see a drum set (you know how to play, I do too!), a big screen tv, a plush couch,   
  
a big platform of polished wood and two doors. You look in the first one and see it is a big   
  
luxurious bathroom with a roman tub, shower, toilet and sink. You figure the other door   
  
the way out so you open it and see 5 people sitting in the hallway. One of which, is Yusuke.   
  
'Um..hi..' you say nervously. "Ari, you're awake!" says Yusuke happily. 'Yeah, um, me too...  
  
Who are all these people? Where am I?' you ask "Oh crap, sorry! You're at my friend's  
  
place and these peole are Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei and Botan." he says pointing to each of   
  
them. They all smile except for one of them, Hiei, who just raises an eyebrow at you. You   
  
look down and see you are only in a big t-shirt and some shorts. Wide eyed, you realize that  
  
your bare arms and legs are showing. The others see this and Botan says "Dear Lord! You   
  
poor thing!" 'Um, can I get changed?' you ask nervously. "Oh, of course! There should be   
  
clothing of your liking in the dresser in your room! By the way, the room behind you IS   
  
your room!" she says cheerfully, a bit TOO cheerfully. 'Thanks' you say and then turn   
  
back into the room to go get changed. You head over to the dresser and find punk stuff,  
  
with all sorts of accessories and stuff. So you decide on a black camisole with a red jacket  
  
that exposes part of the camisole, a black miniskirt, black socks that are tigh high, some   
  
combat boots and a black choker with a heart surrounded by black spikes. Next you go to the   
  
bathroom and find a brush. After cleaning the shit out of it, you brush your hair and look   
  
at yourself (now, you'll get described). You have shoulder length chesnut brown hair with   
  
dark purple bangs. Your eyes are hazel and you are about 5'1" (hey that is taller than me!!!  
  
Im only 5', I got measured today at the doctors!!!) You aren't overweight, but you are big  
  
boned. Sighing in the mirror, you leave your hair down. Satisfied with yourself, you walk back   
  
out of the room and Yusuke is waiting for you.  
  
"Well isn't someone spiffy!" he jokes. You laugh a bit and start to walk with him.   
  
'Hey Yusuke, where are we going?' you ask. "Oh! We are going to see my friend Koenma.   
  
This is his place. He wants to talk to you." he replies 'Ok, that's cool' you say. So, the two   
  
of you walk for a while, talking and you learn a lot about his and his friends' pasts, but he  
  
fails to mention one detail......  
  
Finally, you reach two big double doors and he opens them and you walk inside. The others   
  
were there, as well as ... a toddler? 'Um, who is the baby?' you ask, looking at Botan. She   
  
says "Oh how stupid of me, this is Koenma!" You know it is rude, but you can't suppress   
  
laughter and you clutch your ribs in sudden pain, falling to your knees, gasping for air.   
  
"Ariana!" cries an unfamiliar voice and imeadiately, two strong arms are picking you up   
  
and putting you in a chair. 'Im fine, really' you say, but it comes out as no more than a   
  
whisper. You look up to see who helped you and you see that it is...Kuwabara! (I'm not  
  
making him a total ass in this for certain reasons of my own accord) 'Thanks' you say. "NO  
  
problem" he replies. "Now Ariana," says the unfamiliar voice. You see that it is Koenma, "Do  
  
you know anything about yourself?" 'What sort of question is that?' you ask, "I'm Ariana   
  
Carter, 12 years old, disgrace of the Carter name, what else is there?'  
  
"Oh but there is so much more Ariana! You have no clue that you are not human?" 'WHAT?!'  
  
you cry so loud that you clutch your ribs again. "Ariana, you are a fire kitsune. You also have  
  
the power of telepathy and have a strong pull to plants. You will be an outstanding fighter as   
  
well, once you've learned how" says Koenma. "But this isn't all. There is one more thing!"   
  
'And what else could there possibly be?!' you ask. "Well, you have family. Jeff kidnapped  
  
you when you were a baby and told you your family was dead, when really, it was only your parents." '  
  
What?! Who's my family?'"Well, one member is sitting to your right." you turn to your right   
  
slowly to see a wide eyed Kuwabara sitting there. 'K-Kuwabara is my brother?' "Yes, and   
  
Shizuru is your sister." You can't blieve what you are hearing. 'But why would Jeff want  
  
to kidnap me?' "Well, you see,the three of you all got special abbilities. Shizuru has an   
  
amazing 6th sense and she can fight like you wouldn't believe. Kuwabara also has a strong  
  
6th sense and can call a sword made purely out of spirit energy. You however, are the  
  
reincarnation of a powerful fire kitsune who used to work for the theif Youko Kurama."   
  
At this you look over at peaceful Kurama and he nods, confirming the fact that it was him.  
  
Koenma continues," Jeff wanted to aquire your power for himself, because he is a demon  
  
as well and was waiting until your powers were unlocked so he could absorb them. He  
  
thought that by hurting you, your powers would be unleashed faster, when in fact, you were  
  
so strong that you kept your powers inside until you worried about Yusuke and some of your   
  
fire and telepathis powers were unleashed, which is why that demon he was fighting, was   
  
covered in ash,you burnt him to a crisp by screaming. It is part of your powers. telepathy   
  
and fire used together is very powerful. In fact, once you have all of your powers, you will  
  
probably be an A demon at least, if not a S class demon." He stops and lets all of this sink   
  
in, before continuing. "We would like to unleash your powers as soon as you are ready, so   
  
you will be able to defend yourself." After considering all of this, you say 'Well, how about  
  
now then?' "Well, if you are sure, Botan, will you please go back to her room with her and   
  
show her how to get around this maze of a place?" "Sure Koenma sir!" says Botan and the  
  
two of you leave and you go back to your room. You have a good memory and remembered   
  
how to get back to your room. As you two walked, Botan points out different points in the   
  
house, including where the boys' bedrooms were, in case you needed to talk to one of them  
  
until you got back to your hallway. Botan tells you how the rooms next you are empty and she   
  
shows you her room. It was very peppy, except for one wall, which seemed very gloomy  
  
and had stacks of papers on it. Since you know she is the grim reaper, you figure that that  
  
was all her recent pick-ups to take to spirit world. You go back to your room and change  
  
into a black t-shirt, black arm warmers, black sweatpants, some balck anarchy shoes  
  
with a red insignia, and you put your hair half up. You re-emerge from the room and you   
  
and Botan walk down some more halls and you soon have familiarized yourself with the   
  
entire place. When you make it to the training field, the guys are waiting.   
  
"Uh...sis, you don't have to dress like it is 20 degrees below..." says Kuwabara, who didn't   
  
see your arms and legs earlier. 'You didn't see did you?' you say softly. "See what" he  
  
asks. You think that you hear Hiei mutter "Baka" but you aren't sure. You roll down your   
  
armwarmers, exposing your black and blue arms. Kuwabara's eyes go wide "Holy Shit!  
  
He did that to you!?!?!?!?!?!" says a very angry Kuwabara "That bastard!!!! How dare he  
  
hurt a Kuwabara like that?!" You stare down once again, a bit embarrased at his reaction.  
  
You feel a hand on your shoulder and you see that it is Kurama. "Ariana, nobody will EVER  
  
hurt you like that again." he says kindly, "So you don't have to hide it anymore, we are here  
  
now to protect you until you can protect yourself and even then, you will never be alone  
  
like that again. You can consider us like your brothers as well if you like. Because I know  
  
that Yusuke and I and PROBABLY Hiei too, though he wouldn't admit it, feel like you're  
  
our sister, not just Kuwabara's." You can't help but smile at how nice they all are to you.  
  
Nobody had EVER been this nice to you and it is a wonderful feeling. 'Thank you, that means  
  
a lot, more than you probably know.' "So, how are we gonna do this kiddo?" asks Yusuke,  
  
breaking the silence. You laugh and say 'and how should I know? I've known about all this  
  
stuff for how long now, 5 hours? 6?' "I know!!!" says Kuwabara," I'll use my brute   
  
strength to force it out of her!" Yusuke looks at him and says "Right Kuwabara, you're   
  
REALLY gonna BEAT it out of her, did we not just tell her that wouldn't happen again?"  
  
Sheepishly, Kuwabara replies with an "oops" and scratches his foot along the ground.  
  
You look at them and say 'What is that supposed to mean?' "Well, in order to unleash   
  
the powers, you kinda have to be attacked says Yusuke nervously. 'Well if you must, I   
  
guess I'm used to it by now.' you say and lay down on the ground and close your eyes. All   
  
four boys look at you aghast and Hiei goes up to you, pulls you to your feet and says "Baka  
  
onna, you are supposed to try and use your powers to fight back!!!" 'Oh' you say and cringe,  
  
expceting a blow that never comes. When you look up, you see Hiei has taken fighting stance   
  
on the other side of the field. Before you can think twice, Hiei has dissapeared. You have a  
  
bad feeling that he's behind you so you turn around and jump out of the way and a blade  
  
comes crashing down. You scream and run away, but he persues you until he finally hits your  
  
shoulder. Biting your lip from a sudden pain in your head, you sink to your knees. You scream  
  
as it feels like your head is beng ripped apart, but then the feeling goes down your spine  
  
and coarses through your body. Then (surprise!) everything goes black.  
  
When you wake up (that is what the 5th time in this quiz? oh well, there IS a reason for it)  
  
you are back in your room. When you look around, you see the guys, Botan and three   
  
unfamiliar girls standing around your bed. 'Um...hi!' you say to get their attention. They look  
  
down at you and all have relieved looks on their faces. You sit up and see that all of your cuts  
  
and stuff, are gone! 'What happened?' you ask. One of the girls steps forward. "I'm Yukina  
  
and I healed you!" she says sweetly. 'Thank you! But who are your friends?' you ask, referring  
  
to the two other girls. They step forward now "I'm Keiko, Yusuke's girlfriend!" says a girl  
  
with short brown hair. Yusuke had told you about her - MANY times. 'It's nice to meet you'  
  
you say, then a girl with long brown hair and hazel eyes says "I think you know who I am" and you  
  
know imediately that this girl is Shizuru. 'Shizuru!' you cry and jump out of bed hugging her.  
  
She chuckles and hugs you back "I remember the day that ass wipe took you. Our dear brother  
  
was only 4, but I don't see why he wouldn't remember it....oh well, at least there are two   
  
smart people in this family and only one baka!" she says brightly. You laugh and then Kuwabara  
  
says "Hey! How come you didn't hug me when you found out that I was your brother?!"  
  
Everyone except you anime falls. You walk over to him and say 'sorry!' and give him a hug  
  
He then says "That's more like it, at least SOMEBODY respects me!" Yusuke cuts in and   
  
says "Hey Ari, why didn't you sock him one in the jaw?" 'I don't like to get hit is all...' "Hn,  
  
well kid you're gonna have to get over that if you're going to be joining us!" 'What are you   
  
talking about?!' you say a bit confused. "Join the TEAM baka onna!" 'Oh...but I couldn't.  
  
Besides why would you want me on your team anyways? I'd just mess you up...' "Will you  
  
cut that out! You are NOT a screw up! You NEVER have been and you NEVER will be! Can't  
  
you see that NONE of us will EVER hurt you? You're our little sister kid and we PROTECT   
  
YOU!!!!!!!! Jeff or anybody like him will never get a chance to hurt you again because we are   
  
here now and they will have to go through all of us to get to you!!!!!!!!" cries a VERY exhasperated   
  
Yusuke. Eyes brimming with tears, you look at all of them and break down and sob. You feel  
  
a hand on your shoulde rand you shake them off. You stand up and run out of the room and out  
  
of the house, into the woods. You run until your legs won't carry you any more and by then, you   
  
are far from home and hopelessly lost. Fed up with your life, you sit against a tree trunk   
  
and reflect, something you did when you felt fed up living with Jeff. When night starts to   
  
fall, you feel another hand on your shoulder, tapping on it. You gaze up and see a............   
  
dog demon??  
  
"Who are you?" he asks gruffly. 'Um... I'm Ariana...' Then a girl with black hair  
  
comes up behind him and says "Sorry about my friend, he doesn't take to kindly to strangers,  
  
I'm Kagome and this is Inuyasha." Then, more people come up behind kagome and introduce   
  
themselves as Miroku, Sango, Shippo, Kirara (introduced by Sango) and Myoga. Miroku seems  
  
ok, Sango and Shippo seem very nice to you, Kirara doesn't talk (duh!) and Myoga kept  
  
muttering about evil female fleas. Inuyasha seems like kind of a jerk at the moment and  
  
Kagome seems really nice as well. You all talk for a while, until you hear voices calling   
  
your name. The voices get closer and soon the voices emerge from the bushes as Kuwabara  
  
and Yusuke. "Ariana?!" they cry. 'Um, yeah?' you reply and look at the shocked looks on your   
  
new friends' faces. 'Ari, why are you with these people? Better yet, who the HELL are they?"  
  
asks Yusuke (In case you haven't guessed, Yusuke and Shizuru are the only ones who will  
  
be using your nickname) Miroku steps forward and introduces himself and his comrads "How may   
  
we be of assisstance to you?" "Well, for starters, get the HELL away from our sister, and  
  
secondly all of you need to be going with us, NOW!" says Yusuke coldly. After much persuasion  
  
and getting to make his own personal crater in the forest floor, Inuyasha agrees to go   
  
as well.   
  
Back at Koenma's office "So let me get this straight, all of you with the exception   
  
of Kagome are from the fuedal era?" asks Koenma. "Yeah, that sums it up pretty well"  
  
says Sango. "Inuyasha, is your brother by any chance Sesshomaru, ruler of the   
  
Western Lands?" asks Koenma "Hm, I guess my asshole brother has made enough of   
  
a name for himslef that you know who he is" says Inuyasha "Actually, I was curious about   
  
YOU, were you not the only one to steal the Shikon No Tama from the priestess Kikyou?"   
  
asks Koenma "Yes, That was me, nut how would you know that little talking baby?" "I'M NOT   
  
A BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WAS AROUND BEFORE YOU WERE SO DON'T EVEN GO THERE!!!!"  
  
screams Koenma. Inuyasha looks a bit taken aback. "Now", says Koenma, regaining his  
  
composure, "Ariana will you please show our female guests to their rooms? And you four  
  
boys will of course take our male guests to their quarters, some of you will have to share.  
  
Now go, go to sleep!" 'I wonder why my sister wasn't there today you think as you lead the girls through   
  
the halls until you reach your hall. First you tell Sango, Kagome and Kirara that Botan is   
  
at one end of the hall and Keiko, Yukina and Shizuru are in the other three rooms. First   
  
you take Sango to the room on the left of your own. It is the same size as yours with sky   
  
blue walls and green carpet so it looks like outside in the day. She has a bookcase filled with  
  
slaying strategies and martial arts books and basically the same things as you, except she has  
  
a large stand for her boomerang rather than a weaponry closet and her own cds. 'I need to ask  
  
Koenma about that closet' you think to yourself as you help her and Kirara get settled. Next   
  
you take Kagome to the room on your right. This room is also the same size as your own and  
  
has PINK (egh o--o puke)walls and a white carpet. This room had a bookshelf filled with  
  
archery tips and random things as well as a stand for her bow and arrows. Other than that,   
  
she also had the same thing as you, but with her own cds. Once you are sure they are both   
  
settled, you go back to your own room and fall into a dreamless sleep.  
  
A month later, you wake up and it is still dark outside. So, you walk around the halls  
  
quietly, so as not to wake anybody up. You hear people muttering, but you know that nobody   
  
is awake yet. You look around and, not seeing anyone say 'Hello?' Suddenly, a group of   
  
teenagers that look about your brothers' ages appear ( not counting Kurama and Hiei since  
  
they are MANY years older than they appear....)in front of you. You take one look at these  
  
people who just appeared out of thin air and scream. Instantly, EVERYBODY (Yyh & Inuyasha  
  
characters) is in the center of the hallway. "Whats the matter?!" asks Kuwabara. All you   
  
do is point towards the shadowy corner where these newcomers are. Evryone's gaze falls  
  
over there and they see the people too. "More people? Jeez, didn't think we had enough"  
  
mutters Hiei. Yusuke says calmy but with a hint of aggitation in his voice " You guys need   
  
to go with us, everybody else might as well come too" and with that you all head back towards  
  
Koenma's office.  
  
Back in Koenma's office (again) Surprised, Koenma looks up "What the hell   
  
are you all in here for this EARLY?!" he asks. You all part so he can see the new people.  
  
He looks shocked "Who the hell are they?" he asks. "Dunno, they won't say anything"  
  
says Kurama good naturedly. The people are all just gawking at Koenma, the talking baby.  
  
Realizing this, Koenma goes behind a screen thingy and emerges in his teen form "Now  
  
will you tell us who you are and why the HELL you're here?" he asks irritabley. This time,  
  
a boy with raven hair and brilliant green eyes steps forward. "Well, I'm Harry, that is Ron"  
  
he says pointing to a boy with orange hair to challenge Kuwabara's and blue eyes "That is  
  
Hermione" pointing to a girl with curly brown hair and hazel eyes, "Luna" pointing to a   
  
girl with distant eyes and dirty-blond hair "Ginny" pointing to a girl with equally orange hair  
  
as the boy ron, appearing to be his sister "and Neville" he finishes, pointing to a boy with  
  
brown hair and brown eyes. They all wave akwardly and you wave back. "And how exactly   
  
did you get here?" Koenma asks again. This time, the girl named Hermione answers. "Well,  
  
we were all on holiday in Tokyo, we went for a walk in the woods using Harry's invisibility  
  
cloak and all of a sudden we were in this BLOODY place!" Koenma, a bit taken aback by  
  
her outburst continues, "Well since we have even MORE guests, we will all be sharing rooms,  
  
because I simply do NOT have THAT many rooms. Figure it out amongst yourselves and  
  
come back later when you all have informed the new comers of the situation and why  
  
they can't return to their world right now! Now OUT OF MY OFFICE!!!!!" Everyone hurries   
  
out of the office and into the hallway. Everyone stands there awkwardly until your brother   
  
steps forward and takes Hermione's hand. "Dear Hermione, you can share a room with me,  
  
I will protect you from all evil!" Disgusted, Hermione pulls her hand away and sluggs him.  
  
Yusuke laughs out loud "Finally! Kuwa got what he deserves!!!!!" Kuwabara sits up and yells  
  
"Urameshi!!!!!!!!!!!! Just you wait until I chatch you! You are dead! This time for GOOD!"  
  
During all of this, you walk up to Hermione and say ' Sorry about my brother, he tends to  
  
think that his ugly face attracts every girl he meets that he isn't related to.' (As the month  
  
went by, you have become much bolder, don't think everyone is gonna hurt you and have unleashed  
  
your powers. You have not seen your demon form yet though) She laughs and you say 'You  
  
can stay with me if you'd like, other than my other sister, I'm basically the only one that  
  
can keep my brother in line without having to knock his lights out, except sometimes, that  
  
way is SO much MORE fun!' you say laughing. She laughs again and says "Sure, I'll stay   
  
with you, especially since that way, I'll get to 'punch his lights out' as you say much more!  
  
Since he is your broter, he must check up on you more!" Both of you go into a fit of laughter  
  
and when you stop laughing finally, everyone, with the exception of Botan, Yukina, Keiko  
  
and Shizuru have roomates. The roomates are :Inuyasha and Miroku, hiei and Shippo  
  
(poor Shippo), Kuwabara and Neville, Yusuke and Ron, Kurama and Harry, Sango Kirara  
  
and Ginny, Kagome and Luna, and of course you and Hermione. (sorry to those of you  
  
who dislike Hermione, but she is my seocnd favorite character, my first favorite is a draw  
  
between Fred and George, but since they have their store to run, they may not be in this  
  
story :'[ ) So, you and Hermione go back to your room. You first tell her about your life,  
  
how you met the gang, about being Kuwabara's sister, (leaving out the demon part) running  
  
away and meeting the group (Inuyasha & co) and then meeting her and her friends. When  
  
you finish telling her that stuff,she is in tears. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry!'   
  
you say sadly. "No, it's alright! I guess I'll tell you about my life." She then tells you about   
  
her parents, getting her letter for Hogwarts, meeting her friends, stuff that has happened   
  
to them over the years and this evil dude Voldemort who killed Harry's parents and godfather.  
  
When she finished, you were sad, but you didn't cry. You haven't cried for a few weeks.  
  
Hiei taught you how to suppress your tears. So you now have to tell her about what Koenma  
  
told you to tell her. 'Well, you see, Kurama, Hiei, Yukina, Shippo and I are demons. Yusuke and   
  
Inuyasha are half demons, and my dear brother and my sister are human with spiritual energy.  
  
Keiko, Kagome, Sango and Miroku are all human. Keiko packs a fierce slap when Yusuke  
  
decides to be perverted, Kagome is the reincarnation of a powerful priestess, Sango was  
  
a demon slayer and Miroku is a monk. Bets watch out for him, he is even worse than my  
  
brother and Yusuke he'll probably ask you to ear his children. Ignore it, or better yet,  
  
punch him!' you say enthusiastically. Hermione laughs and says "I'm gathering that you  
  
want to punch him?" 'Yeah I do, but I -thankfully- am too young for his interest. My sister  
  
however has turned him down so many times I think he is going for a record!!!' After that,   
  
you tell her about Spirit world, more about demons and why she couldn't go home. Thankfully,  
  
she understands and then she tells you more about the wizarding world. Once she finishes you   
  
look at the clock and see that it is 6:00, and you both missed lunch and in fact it is almost   
  
dinner time! The two of you go to the kitchen and see Yukina, Keiko and Botan cooking dinner.  
  
You say hello to them and then go get plates, forks, knives, spoons and napkins. Next you  
  
two go to the dining room and set the table for 22 (daaaaaaaaamn) people. While you set   
  
the table, you continue talking. "You know, Im surprised" Hermione says 'Why is that?'  
  
"Well, you are a LOT like me when I was 12, except for..well.. Jeff" 'Really?' "Yeah, you  
  
actually care about school, yor attitude, loyalty to your friends, you know.. we should study  
  
sometime..." 'That would be a lot of fun, except, somehow I don't think that we are taking  
  
the same courses if you know what I mean...' "Yeah, too bad....." 'Let's go tell everyone that  
  
dinner will be ready soon!' "ok!" so the two of you head back through the hallways to the boys  
  
hallway, first going to Hiei and Shippo's room. You let them know and see that they were  
  
playing somesort of game, so you go to the next room, Kurama and Harry's. They are reading.  
  
In Inuyasha and Miroku's room, they are training and barely hear you. The next room is   
  
Kuwabara and Neville's, but they weren't there, so you go to the last room, Yusuke and Ron's  
  
and sure enough, all four of them were in there, playing poker. You laugh as you see that Yusuke  
  
has a big pile of money behind him and the sullen look on your brother's face. 'Whats the  
  
matter bro?' you ask innocently. "Whats the matter?! I'll tell ya whats the matter! I   
  
lost 600 yen to Urameshi in the last half hour. Thats what the matter is!!!!" 'Ok jeez,  
  
birth a cow why dontcha!' you laugh and tell them about dinner, which gets all their attention.  
  
They invite you both to play with them, but you decline, since you have to tell more people.  
  
You both laugh again and then head to the girls hallway. You go to Sango and Ginny's  
  
room first, let them know and then they go back to discussing batal strategies, next you go  
  
to Kagome and Luna's room, let them know, and then they go back to discussing   
  
Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. Next you go to Shizuru's room and tell her that dinner is just   
  
about ready, so she walks with you back to the dining room, where four certain boys are   
  
already waiting with watering mouths. You go into another fit of laughter as you sit down.  
  
The boys just look at you oddly until you say, 'Sooo, Yusuke, how far from BROKE are ya   
  
these days?' Smugly he says "Oooooh, only about 1,098.70 yen..." This starts up your laughing  
  
all over again. "What is soooo funny?" 'That....is...only....ten......dollars....in...America......' you   
  
say between laughs."WHAT!?!"   
  
Tune in next time for the dinner party!!!!! 


	2. Discovery of the Demonic Ariana

disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, except Ariana, Jeff and Taylor. I don't own YuYu Hakusho, or Inuyasha, nor Harry Potter. And I never will, since I'm not J.K. Rowling, Yoshihiro Togashi or Rumiko Takahashi, sorry!  
  
summary ( the real one): The story of a 12 year old Ariana Carter. A girl who has been abused all her life. But what will happen when she saves a person who will save her in turn from her desolation, and what will happen when she meets a few more people who will change her life forever. Inu, YuYu & HP x-over  
  
rating: PG-13 for slight language ( me and my mouth), mentions of violence, and descriptions of brutal violence varied from abuse to battle.  
  
key: /.../= author's notes '...'= Ariana speaking "..."= everyone else speaking [...]=Ariana thinking (...)= everyone else's thoughts ...=telepathic convorsation  
  
now on with my story!  
  
Hard Knock Life  
by: fallenangelscorn  
chapter 2  
Discovery of the Demonic Ariana  
  
"Only ten dollars?!" cries Yusuke. 'Yep!' you gasp from laughing so hard. He looks sullen at first, then his face brightens and he says "Good thing I'm not planning on heading to the states huh kid?" /he has taken to calling you kid most of the time, ironic really, since he asks your name so he won't have to call you that originally, but he considers you his little sister, seriously, he cares as much as Kuwa. Kurama and hiei care too, but not quite as much as the other two-hm, this author's note is long.... lets get back to the story!/ You laugh and nod, turning to Hermione, who is still laughing very hard. 'Um, Hermione? You need to breath, it's kinda important.' you say, as she is turning red in the face now, tears streaming down her face. [Did someone cast a cheering charm on her or something?] you think as you pat her on the back. When Hermione has finally calmed herself down, the other boys come in and sit down. About five minutes later, the girls /Botan, Yukina and Keiko/ come out and place steaming bowls of ramen in front of everybody. Before they can take their own seats, Yusuke and Kuwabara are slurping their last noodles and holding out their bowls for more.  
  
/Now Im just gonna do the seating arrangement real quick./  
Yukina Neville Ginny Shizuru Ariana/you Hermione Ron Luna Inuyasha Myoga Hiei  
Koenma  
Kurama Kuwabara Yusuke Keiko Shippo Harry Sango Miroku Kagome Botan /that is the seating arrangement, I know that they aren't perfectly across from each other, but sue me, some of their names are long, besides, you get the drift/  
  
Yukina kindly refills Kuwabaras bowl for the fourth time. You have been holding your comment back for the past few minutes, but you can't help yourself any longer. 'Jeez bro, eat any more and training won't save you. You'll be too fat and slow to dodge any of our or any enemy's attacks, not that you could now anyways...' you say snickering. "What was that last part sis? I missed it." he says coldly. Not even phased , you say 'I hope you heard me Kazuka /that is your nickname for him, which he HATES with a passion/, or is your hearing slowly leaving too? I said not that you could dodge anybody's attacks anyways as it is.' "Care to test that theory?" he asks angrily. 'Absolutely big brother, just not tonight, I want you to at least have a small chance, and with your stomach so full, you'll be even more sluggish than usual. Hows about tomorrow morning?' you say sweetly. This just pisses him off more and he shouts "You're on little sister! Prepare to LOSE!!!!!!!!!!" and he storms out of the room. Seeing this, Hiei and Kagome burst out laughing to everyone's surprise. You bid everyone goodnight and leave the room, with Hermione following you, to see if you are alright. seeing this, Hiei and Kagome burst out laughing to everyone's surprise. You bid everyone goodnight and leave the room, with Hermione following you, to see if you are alright. "What is so funny you two?" asks Kurama after they are gone. Kagome answers first. "Well, I can sense Ariana's aura. She is very powerful and well, her brother, how can I put this nicely, isn't!" Hiei then says "Besides, none of you, including you Yusuke and Kurama, have actually seen her powers. Kurama you've probably seen how she deals with plants , and Yusuke, you've seen how hard she can punch and kick, but I've seen her pyric (fire) and telepathic abilities. She has telekinesis on her side, as well as some pretty powerful fire attacks. Little known to her baka brother, she's a shooin!" Everyone is taken back by this. That is probably the most anyone had ever heard Hiei say at one time. But he was right.  
  
When you and Hermione get back to your room, you see another bed with red sheets and gold pillows on it. 'Hermione, are those your favorite colors or something, cuz that is why my bed is the color it is...' "No, actually, those are the Gryffindor colors, from back at Hogwarts..." she replies. 'Oh, ok. I'm going to train a bit now, do you mind if I turn on some rock? I kinda tend to blare it.' Shockingly, she replies "Not at all! I haven't heard any rock in ages! My mum and dad don't really approve of it, and in Hogwarts , muggle appliances don't work, so I haven't really heard any in a while!" 'Go figure. Other than me, Hiei is the only other person who likes my music, in fact, he tends to steal my cd's from time to time. Yusuke and my darling brother like rap, ugh, and everybody else likes that pop fluff. Its disgusting really. I'm going to put in one of my mix cd's that I made!' you say. She nods and you pop it in and press play. The first track is 'I Hate Everything About You'. You start to sing as you begin to punch and kick your punching bag. /I will be putting the sog lyrics in here for some songs this is one of them/  
  
Every time we lie awake after every hit we take every feeling that I get but I haven't missed you yet  
  
Every roomate kept awake by every sigh and scream we make all the feelings that I get but I still don't miss you yet only when I stop to think about it  
  
I hate everything about you why do I love you I hate everything about you why do I love you  
  
Every time we lie awake after every hit we take every feeling that I get but I havent misse you yet only when I stop to think about it  
  
I hate everything about you why do I love you I hate everything about you why do I love you  
  
Only when I stop to think about you I know only when you stop to think about me do you know  
  
I hate everything about you why do I love you you hate everything about me why do you love me?  
  
I hate you hate I hate you love me  
  
I hate everything about you why do I love you?  
  
As the song ends, you think about the words and realize, yet again, that this is the story of your life. You had always loved Jeff somehwat, since he was technically your father, even though you hated every atribute of him. As did he despise every single thing about you, but he loved you for the fact that he would become powerful from you /or so he thought/. You stop with the punching bag. 'Meant to Live' comes on and you stretch both your body and your mind /I sound like a redbull comercial/ After that comes 'In the Shadows' and you practice your telekinetics. After lifting things with your mind mentally for 3 minutes , 'Break Stuff' by Limp Bizkit comes on and you begin to run in place. [Finally the fun part] you think as you head over to your weapons closet and open the doors. Hermione, who is watching you train, gasps as she sees inside of the closet and all the diferent weapons you have in there. First, you take out a half dozen shurikens /throwing stars/ and a target, aka a picture of Jeff's head. you hit the button to resume the music and 'Jude Law and a Semester Abroad' comes on. You start throwing, hitting his eyes, neck, right between the eyes, basically all the fatal places, and hit upon seeing your target each time. Next up is the song 'Sic transit Gloria... Gory Fades' and your two daggers. After you have swung them around for a few minutes, manuevering and twisting your body to dodge an opponent's lunges, you put away the daggers. This time, you pull out the spare katana that Koenma had lent you. Unlike the other weapons, Hiei had told you that once you had your own katana, you would be able to do much more with it, since a katana is part of its owner. This made sense to you, and you could tell when you were practicing with it what he meant. You turn on the cd once again, this time, the song is 'I Feel So' by Boxcar Racer /song time again! This is one of my favorite songs/  
  
Sometimes I wish I was brave I wish I was stronger I wish I could feel no pain I wish I was young I wish I was shy I wish I was honest I wish I was you not I  
  
flashback to when you were five'But Jeff,can't I have a birthday like my friends?' "Because you little ingrate, I already feed you and give you a home, let alone give you clothes, what more do you want?!!!!" 'A birthday..' you say. That was the first time he had ever hit you. He slapped you right across the face, and when you started to cry, he hit you again and again until you finally stopped.  
  
Cause I feel so mad I feel so angry I feel so callused so lost confused again I feel so cheap so used unfaithful let's start over let's start over  
  
Sometimes I wish I was smart I wish I made cures for how people are I wish I had power I wish I could lead I wish I could change the world for you and me  
  
flashback to age eight: 'Jeff, my friend invited me to a sleepover! Can I go please? I promise that I'll be good!' "No you haven't washed the dishes yet!" 'But Jeff, the party isnt until next week!' "Are you talking back to me?" 'N-no I'm n-not' "Really? You aren't because it sure as hell sounded like it!" That was the first time he had punched you. You had a black eye for a while, and you had to lie and say that you had been trying to open something and punched your self.  
  
Cause I feel so mad I feel so angry I feel so callused so lost confused again I feel so cheap so used unfaithful let's start over let's start over  
  
Cause I feel so mad I feel so angry I feel so callused so lost confused again I feel so cheap so used unfaithful let's start over let's start over  
  
flashback to when you were eleven: 'Jeff, I have been invited to a party by this girl, can I go, I have done all the chores you told me to do.' "Will there be boys there?" 'Um, yes I think so...' "Then no, boys have dirty minds and lots of girls do, do YOU hav a dirty mind Ariana?" 'No Jeff, I don't' "Well I bet that those boys will want to play kissing games and such." 'I won't play them then Jeff' "You little tramp, you are lying! Of course you will! And you'll probably screw him too! How did I raise such a slut of a daughter? Look at how you dress, what you look like! It's repulsive!" That was the day that he had chopped off your hair with a knife. Your hair has once to your butt and you bangs were brown and long as well. He chopped off most of your bangs and dyed them purple thinking that they would make you less atractive, when in reality, it had made you even prettier than before. When he realized this, he kicked you so hard that one of your ribs broke and after two weeks, he finally took you to the hospital and you said that you fell off of your bike. The doctor didn't believe it, but he didn't accuse Jeff of it. Jeff after all, was an upstanding citizen. You don't accuse those types of people of that sort of thing.  
  
I feel so mad I feel so angry I feel so callused so lost confused again I feel so cheap so used unfaithful let's start over let's start over let's start over let's start over  
  
When the song ends, you don't even notice and keep going with your lunges and blocks of an imaginary opponent . The memories of those incedents reoccuring to you just made you practice even harder. After about a half of an hour with your katana, you realize the song is over and stop. You put away the sword and look at Hermione. She has a look of disbelief on her face. Sullen at the moment from those memories, and ones just like them. After the incident with your ribs, you were never invited to another party, nobody talked to you anymore, and your best friend stopped talking to you. It was her party you had been invited to, and everyone thought you had stood her up, and she, being one of the most poplular girls in the 6th grade, was quite offended . 'Was I really that bad?' you ask sitting down. "No, actually, you were incredible, I've never seen anybody move like that! Not even Harry!" she replies. 'Are you serious? Those were just basics, I'm not training all too hard tonight.' "Well, yeah, I am serious, why wouldn't I be?" she says a bit shocked. 'Um, come with me..' you say and get up, as does she. You both go off to the living room where everybody but Kuwabara is watching a tv show. 'Um, guys, we have a situation.' You say. "What's that Ariana?" asks Kurama. 'This!' you reply and go into a series of punching / kicking combos. When you are finished, Yusuke says "I don't see the problem kid, you are improving.." 'No!' you say and point to the shocked looks on the teen wizard's /witch's faces. "Oh, that's the problem! But wait, you wre only doing basic moves. you didn't even use your powers!" You sweatdrop and then Hiei says "You know detective, I'm starting to think the baka is rubbing off on you." "Ooooooooh, ok, they are surprised that she can do basic moves!" Yusuke says knowingly. You sweatdrop again and say 'Maybe my brother is rubbing off on you, the fact they were shocked by that is not good, that means that they haven't had the slightest bit of proper training, jeez, even I knew that!' Once you are finished, Yusuke gives you a sheepish grin. "I already knew that! I was testing you to see if you knew!" 'Suuure.' you say skeptically. "Um, why don't we take care of this in the morning?" asks Sango, pointing to the clock. you look and see that it is 11:30. You both bid everyone goodnight /again/ and then head off to bed. Once you are in the room you go and change into a white tanktop and some plaid sleep bottoms. Then Hermione goes and changes into a long sleeveless blue night gown. Then you both climb into your beds. 'G'night Hermione' "Goodnight Ariana" you both say. Then you clap you hands and the lights turn off.  
  
The next morning, when you wake up, you see it is still dark outside. So you get out of bed and quietly go to the bathroom and change into a camouflage tanktop that says in white lettering 'Ha! Now you can't see me!' /this is a shirt from Hot Topic, my stepbrother owns it as a shirt, get off my back/ and some black sweatpants that flare out at the bottom. You put your hair in a high ponytail so it won't get in your face then put on your eyeliner. You notice that your nail polish is worn away, so you put on a fresh coat of black nail polish. Satisfied since you werent going to wear any black eyeshadow or lipstick /today anyway/ you leave the bathroom and your room and head toward the kitchen. When you get in there, you look at the clock and see that it's only 4 a.m., so you decide to cook breakfast. You go to the fridge and pull out a carton of a dozen eggs. surveying it you think [hm, this might feed my brother, maybe Myoga too] You scurry about cooking and at 9, Kurama, Botan and Hiei walk into the dining room and gasp at what they see.  
  
/yes it's me again, the following may sound like a lot to you, but believe me, its not. I live in a house along with 9 other people. What follows is basically Sunday breakfast doubled...which also may seem lika a lot, but hey, out of 10 people in that house, there are 4 teenagers, 3 little kids with BIG appetites, and 3 adults....... anyway, keep reading, just wanted to warn ya/  
  
They see 4-5 bowls /BIG bowls/ of scrambled eggs.Stacks upon stacks of toast, bagels and english muffins . Several bowls of fried potatoes. Piles of Hashbrowns. Three bowls of fruit /one for each part of the table/. Plus a few Pitchers of orange juice, water and milk. "Wow." is all they can say. Just then, you walk in with 2 platters of sausage and 2 of bacon. 'Good morning guys!' you say, seeing them. You put down the plates where there is room then turn around to face them. "Ariana, did you make all of this?" asks Miroku. 'Well, yeah, who else would've? I'm the only other person up other than you guys!' Then, the doors swing open and following their noses are Kuwabara, Yusuke, Neville, Ron, Harry and Inuyasha float in /y'know, when characters float when following a smell......right?/ "Mmmm, something smells good, who made breakfast?" asks Yusuke, smelling the air and eyeing the table hungrily. "Ariana did." replies Kurama. This stops Kuwabara dead in his tracks. "Wait, my sister made all of this?! Impossible, she can't cook! We'll all be poisened!!" 'Shove it Kazuka. You really think I can't cook? Don't eat it, but I had to make his almighty Jeff breakfast every morning. But if you really don't wanna eat it, it isn't my problem. I just thought that I would give you a nice breakfast so you would have energy to fight me, that's all. But if you'd like to make my life a helluva lot easier and not eat FINE! See if I cook you breakfast again!' "Ha, I knew it! You want me to eat it because it's POISENED!!! Then, you'll be the winner for sure!" 'Ugh, fine, don't eat, but just keep in mind, that you aren't the only one eating!' and with that, you storm out of the dining room to go wake up everyone else for breakfast, tearing. [My own damn brother thinks I'm trying to poisen him. Fine then, let hime starve, ugh, god, why do I even bother sometimes?] back at the dining room "That was pretty harsh Kuwabara, she has been up a long time making all of us this big breakfastand you just accused her of trying to cheat her way into winning by poisening you. Do you really think she would do something like that after all she has been through? She wouldn't dream of it, you idiot!" says Miroku very flustered. He too, had grown to think of her like a little sister. Inuyasha still didn't quite like her that much, but Shippo , Sango and Kagome all thought of her like their sister. Which is a big thing, considering Sango's luck with her sibling /Kohaku/ With you You go and wake everyone else up and by 9:30, everybody was in the dining room eating. Kuwabara had appoligized and you had accepted, so you were basically on good terms again. By 10:15, eveything was gone and Everyone was very full. You get many thank-yous. after that Kuwabara says "So, are you ready to loose little sister?" 'Well, I would be, except Kazuka, the real question is are you ready to get your ass kicked by your younger sister?' Yusuke laughs at this and he and the rest of the guys get up and go to the nxt room over /except for Kuwa of course/  
  
with the boys "I say that we make this a bit more interesting. Anybody care to bet?" says Yusuke. All the boys except Koenma, who wasn't there agree. The betting went as follows: /from least to most- everyone has yen now/ Neville- 50 to Kuwa (I've never seen them battle, but he looks so strong) Ron- 90 toAriana (After seeing the wrath of the girls I know, this girl can't be that different...) Myoga- 91 to Kuwa ( I don't doubt the boy's abillity to win this) Shippo- 91 to Ariana (she made good breakfast, and she is nicer and smarter than the boy) Miroku- 120 to Ariana (she seems quite powerful for a child) Inuyasha- 121 to Ariana (she is a full demon, he is a weak human, this is obvious) Kurama-130 to Ariana (I've seen her train, she has an amazing amount of energy, even for a demon) Hiei- 135 to Ariana (I've trained with this girl, she is so much better than her baka brother its amazing that they are related...) Harry-200 to Ariana (her presence is itself is amazingly powerful, it's scary almost) Yusuke- 500 to Ariana (I know for a fact she is better then her brother. She is a pretty hard hitter, almost packs a punch as hard as mine and she is only 12..)  
  
Back to you "You ready?" asks Kuwa. 'Course I am, how about you?'you reply."As I'll ever be!" he states . 'Then let's go!' you say eagerly. Then the boys re-enter 'We are ready.I suppose that there is gambling afoot...' you say and the boys look down. You chuckle, then walk with Yusuke and Keiko. You look up at your brother figure 'Yusuke, how is the betting?' you ask. "Well actually, out of the ten of us, only two of us are betting on Kuwabara winning..." 'Are you serious, who voted against me? Inuyasha?' "Actually, it was Myoga and Neville." he replies. 'Oh, they've never seen Kuwabara perform, so I understand completely, he does look pretty strong, but how strong is he really?' "he's a pushover, I used to beat the crap out of him all the time, and you almost punch as hard as me, and you are two years younger than when I was punching that hard..." he says "Besides, you have to win, I bet 500 yen on you." This time Keiko cuts in "You WHAT?! Ariana, PLEASE win! This knumbskull bet WAY too much!!" 'Don't worry Keiko, I was planning on winning anyways, but not this will be an even sweeter defeat, for saving everyone so much money, and teaching Neville and Myoga just who they were betting for. A guy who can't beat his sister four years younger than him!' you say excitedly.  
  
A few minutes later, you are both standing on opposite ends of the field. You hear Kurama say "Ready.... FIGHT!" Automatically, Kuwa summons his spirit sword and you unsheath your daggers, which you had chosen as your weapons. You easily block all of his attacks as he lunges at you. You hear Hiei say under his breath "Hm, I guess I taught the onna something right..." /You are a kitsune, excellent hearing/ After two minutes of locked weapons, you manage to pull the spirit sword out of his grasp and it dissappears. 'Oops.' you say innocently. Giving him a chance, you sheath your daggers. Distractedly wondering how you pulled the sword from his hands, he doesn't see you appear behind him. You trip him and he falls flat on his face. This goes on for a few minutes, every time he gets up, you swipe your foot out and trip him again. (She is toying with him. This onna is genious, she's like a violent little sister. Hm, one of each, one docile and one vicious, and she is even part fire demon...) Hiei thinks observing the match, then glancing over at his real sister, Yukina, who is watching the match with difficulty, since she is a pacifist. You just continue to trip him, time and time again, as he gets swirly eyes. Neville and Myoga watch this display in horror, realizing all the money they are about to lose. Finally, you deicide to end it, since you can see your brother is tired. As much as you love to beat him, he is still your brother and you care about him. So, you unsheath one of the daggers, and point it at his neck /he is a LOT taller than you, for example use him in comparrison to Hiei, since he is about your hight/'I do believe I've won Kazuma, dear brother' you say. You decided since you made a fool of him, you'd be nice enough to use his real name instead of Kazuka. Sadly, Neville and Myoga hand the other eight boys their winnings.  
  
Suddenly something occurs to you. 'Hey what is the date?' you ask to nobody in particular. "It's August 1st, why?" says Kurama. Hiding your real reason, you say 'Because, school starts on the 9th!' you say exhasperated. "WHAT?!" yell Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko and Kurama together. /I know Keiko and Kurama like school, but too bad!/-/Ok, now the way I'm setting up school is weird, so listen, I'll explain it once, if you need to hear it again later on, read this or contact me. Here we go. I put Sarayashiki in an awkward position, they have no uniforms, becuase if you remember correctly, Ariana goes there as well, and she wore the hoodie and the baggy pants...yeah. I also made it a middle school AND a high schol, so that Yusuke , Kuwabara and Keiko could still go there. I'm also putting Kurama there, I know he went to Meiou high or something, but he transferred to Sarayashiki. Also, that day you got attacked was the last day of school, in case you couldn't guess from the way things have been going in the story. The entire school has lunch at the same time, this will come in handy, you'll see. Now got that? good, if not, reread it, but I'm going back to the story./ "But what are we gonna do?" asks Ron. Koenma, who was watching the match as well to see Ariana's progress says "Well, you won't be leaving just yet. I've talked to your Hermione's, Ron and Ginny's parents, Luna's father, Neville's grandmother, Harry's ant and uncle as well as all of your headmaster. He understands the situation, and has agreed that it is best you stay here for right now and as long as need be. Also, as far as this quidditch business, I've been informed that Harry and Ron are on a team? I can't allow you to go back to your school to play for your team, but I can have our brooms sent here and we have a big enough feild for you to play on. The other things, like the balls and goal posts can also be arranged. We can get brooms and such for everyone else as well, I believe this would be a good past time, a way to stay in shape and have fun. As far as flying, Harry, Ron and Botan can teach you all who don't know how to." At this comment, Ron's eyes bulge. 'The blue haired girl can fly, but how? You don't have brooms here, do you?" Now Botan steps forward, with her oar. "I use this, it's quite simple really." Then she mounts it sidesaddle /sidebroom, whatever/ and zooms off, flying around the training field a few times before touching back down.  
  
Koenma takes this as an oppurtunity, and goes back to his office. Keiko thanks you again fr saving Yusuke's butt, then you head inside, Ron still amazed. You say you see everyone later, then run to your room for the real reason you had asked what the date was. Harry's birthday! Hermione had told you his birthday was July 31! You walk over to your closet and pull oat a cherry wood box with the symbol for joy on it. This was the box of desires. You simply had to ask for something and it would appear in the box. However, the box can sense aura and if it detects a bad aura or is asked for something evil, it will not react /I made this up./. Thinking fast, you decide on something. You wish for it really hard and soon you hear a soft thud, sugnifying the object had appeared. You lift the lid and take out the pendant you had wished for. It had a ruby red circular base, it clinked, so you figured it wa some sort of metal. The initials 'HP' into it and a lightning bolt was below it. Curled around all of this, was a golden lion with a green eye. The chain was an orangey gold colored metal. Pleased with this present, you conjure up a box, wrapping paper and some tape. Once you finish wrapping it, you make your way through the halls once again, until you get to Kurama and Harry's room. You knock on the door and Kurama answers. You whisper to him why you are there, and a look of horror crossed his face. You laugh and then show him that you adressed it from everyone. He sighed in relief and then he points to a corner with a white chair and a bookcase. IN the chair, you see Harry reading a book. He doesn't notice you approach, so you put your hands over his eyes carefully /so as not to smudge the lenses/. You put on your best British accent then say 'Guess who!' He thinks about it then says "Hm.....Hermione?" 'Nope' "Ginny?" 'Noo' "Luna?" 'Wrong again.' "Ron?" 'NO!' you say, loosing your accent insulted that he called you Ron. "Oh, hello Ariana, thanks for finally using you real accent." 'Your quite welcome Mr. Potter!' "Reason for your visit perhaps?" he asks curiously. 'Course! I came to tell you.... HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! Mr. I- think-I-can-hide-my-birthday -just-because-I'm-somewhere-new. Hermione told me a long time ago!' He is laughing very hard now at your fake angry tone. His hands are palm up from holding the book, so you put the present down on the pages. He stops laughing when he sees this. "You didn't have to get me anything." he says softly. 'Don't care. Besides, you're our friend and we all pitched in to buy it.' you say fake matter-o-factly. 'Now open it!' So, he slowly undoes the paper and opens the box. His eyes pop out of his head as he gazes at it. "Wow, th-thank you!" you can see his eyes well up. 'I'm sorry Harry, if you don't like it we-' "It's not that! I love it! It just reminds me of my parents is all." he says looking down. 'This is the pendant of life. If you press on your initials and say a persons name, the pendant will glow a color. It will glow green if the person is safe or healthy. It will glow orange if the person is in danger, or is fataly ill. It will glow red if the person has passed away. Try it out.' He thinks on it and then says "Sirius Black" the pendant glows a soft red. 'I'm sorry Harry.' "It's ok Ariana, it's just, this thing would have come in handy last year is all." he sighs. 'Well, happy late birthday again Harry' you say and give him a hug. Then you leave the room and head back to your own room thinkin about how unfair Harry's life had been, you see that you and Harry had similar lives. Both so unfair and full of misery where there should have been happiness. With that thought in mind, you enter your room, put in the Meteora cd and lay down on your bed. As 'Somewhere I belong' comes on, you sing along, knowing this is the story of not just your life story, but Harry's as well.  
  
(When this began) I had nothing to say And I get lost in the nothingness inside of me (I was confused) And I let it all out to find That I'm not the only person with these things in mind (Inside of me) But all the vacancy the words revealed Is the only real thing that I've got left to feel (Nothing to lose) Just stuck/ hollow and alone And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own  
  
You think back to that fateful day when those bullies had attacked you, and Yusuke had saved you. The memories still fresh as if they had just happened yesterday, and then the beating you had gotten, for standing up for yourself  
  
I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real I wanna let go of the pain I've held so long (Erase all the pain till it's gone) I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm close to something real I wanna find something I've wanted all along Somewhere I belong  
  
And I've got nothing to say I can't believe I didn't fall right down on my face (I was confused) Looking everywhere only to find That it's not the way I had imagined it all in my mind (So what am I) What do I have but negativity 'Cause I can't justify the way, everyone is looking at me (Nothing to lose) Nothing to gain/ hollow and alone And the fault is my own, and the fault is my own  
  
You think about all the times Jeff had beaten you, telling you it was your fault, you were the bad one and had to be punished for it. You had accepted this over time, why else would he have done it, you had thought to your self. You always thouht that, until you had found out the truth, he wanted your power.  
  
I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real I wanna let go of the pain I've held so long (Erase all the pain till it's gone) I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm close to something real I wanna find something I've wanted all along Somewhere I belong  
  
I will never know myself until I do this on my own And I will never feel anything else, until my wounds are healed I will never be anything till I break away from me I will break away, I'll find myself today  
  
Thinking back to the day when your powers had been unleashed, the energy you had elt, the exhileration, it was amazing. The way your powers just came up to protect you from Hiei's plumetting blade.  
  
I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real I wanna let go of the pain I've held so long (Erase all the pain till it's gone) I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm close to something real I wanna find something I've wanted all along Somewhere I belong  
  
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm somewhere I belong I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm somewhere I belong Somewhere I belong  
  
Somewhere I belong  
  
As the song ends, you think about all those things again, then drift into a fitful dream where you were falling down a neverending blackness, with Jeff's yelling ringing through your ears  
  
The next morning (I say that a lot don't I) you wake up to the sun in your face. You climb out of bed and glance at the clock. It reads 11:30. Realizing this, you jump up and run to the kitchen, finding it empty, so you run to the living room. Eveyone looks up from what they are doing as you skid to a halt on the carpet . You blush, realizing your are still in pajamas and everyone else was already dressed. You run back to your room, grab some cothes and get dressed. you emerge in arizona jeans a nd a black shirt with Ralph /from the simpsons/ on it and he is wearing dirty nasty clothes with holes and rips in them. In big white letters above him is written /really sloppily/ 'I dress myself' /This is a real shirt from Hot Topic/. You left your hair down and put some eyeliner on. Next you go to your closet and grab the shurikens, daggers, bow and arrow as well as the katana before jogging back into the living room. 'Good morning! So, are we going to take care of our problem today?'you ask. "Sort of.." replies Inuyasha "We're going to train in front of them. so they can see which weapon they will want to use." finishes Miroku. 'Oh, ok, so, who will I be fight ing first today?' you ask eagerly. "You're fighting me first" says Miroku . 'Ok, just don't use that tunnel thingy on me please!' you say jokingly. He doesn't realize this "I don't use it while training, Innoncent people could be hurt." You sweatdrop. 'I know that, it was a joke monk!' Embarassed, he replies "Of course...." 'Well, let's go, I'm pumped!' you say practicallly bouncing up and down. You hear Inuyasha mutter under his breath "This one has more energy than Shippo and Kagome combined and she hasn't eaten yet." You giggle then suggest that you all have a mini competition to see who was the best fighter. Everyone agrees. You are happy and say 'Lets go then!' and then start to walk towards the training grounds. /the following is the pairings for round one/  
  
Ariana/Miroku, Sango/Kurama, Yusuke/Kagome, Hiei/Inuyasha /Kuwa decided not to compete/  
  
As you are walking you hear Hiei say in your head Win this for us onna, show up that stupid hanyou you reply Sure, I wasn't planning on losing, usually don't..... So you walk through the doors and straight out to the side and drop off the katana and bow and arrows, then head onto the field. Miroku walks to the other end and you hear Kurama give the go. You pull out your shurikens. Miroku lunges at you and you dodge , throwing a star in the process, it swipes his side, cutting the robe. Unfased, he swings at you again, this time, you can't dodge fast enough and it makes contact in your stomach. You take a step back, ignoring any pain you may have and throw more stars, they catch his robes and he goes flying into a tree getting pinned to the trunk. [perfect] you think as you run towards the tree before he can unpin himself. As you run, you unsheath a dagger and place it at his neck as you arrive. 'I think I win monk.' you say. "I admit, you are an amazing fighter for your age." Miroku says as he waits for you to take the shurikens out of the tree, releasing him. After five minutes, you realize you left him there and release him. You then go and sit on the sidelines sitting in between Hermione and Yusuke as Sango and Kurama battle. Sango easily defeats Kurama when she knocks his rose whip away with her infamous boomerang. Then Yusuke overpowers Kagome and it was time for the match everyone was waiting for. Hiei vs. Inuyasha. They both walked out, with determind looks on their faces. You give the go and they are imediately dueling. The tetsuiga and Hiei's katana clashing every few minutes. Hiei then shouts "fists of the mortal flame!" and his fists ignite. Luna gasps and Hiei sheaths his katana jumping away from a lunge courtesy of Inuyasha. He starts punching him vigourasley and mercilessly, dissappearing every now and then then reappearing and punching Inuyasha again. After a while, Inuyasha senses him and brings the tetsuiga down as it makes contact with Hiei's shoulder. He doesn't even stop and sidekicks Inuyasha in his bck, sending him flying. The inferno fists /I like calling them that/ die down as he races over and holds his katana to his throat. Grumbling at his loss, Inuyasha stalks back over, then plops down next to Kagome who is sporting a bruise on her arm.  
  
You all take a break as you get healed by Yukina. After you get healed, you walk over to Shizuru who is talking to Keiko . 'Hey sis!' "Hello Ariana, I saw you yesterday. Good job, very good job." 'Thank you.' "And good job today as well. You have some stiff competition for the second round." 'I know, I just hope that I don't have to fight Hiei yet...' "Why is that?" asks Keiko. 'Well, I just have a strong feeling that if I do, something is going to happen, and if something does happen, I still want to be able to fight if I win!' you say in one breath. Keiko looks at you an 'o' of surprise on her mouth. Kurama walks over with the hat, and the four of you go over to him. he draws the first slip out -Hiei. Then he draws out his competitor - Sango. Which meant that you would be fighting Yusuke. You sighed in relief, then realized what just happened 'This should be interesting....' you think. Hiei and Sango's fight goes quickly, with Hiei obviously coming out the victor.You and Yusuke walk out onto the field and you decided on using the shurikens and your daggers again. You saw how easily kagome had been beaten when she was trying to get an arrow in place and you were determined to win, even if you did have to battle your brother figure. Kurama /yet again/ gives the go and Yusuke charges at you. you do the same and when you are close enough to him - disappear. This shocks everyone in the audiance except Hiei who is smirking (I knew she would use that technique. It's a good thing she kept her speed a secret until now, that caught the detective way off guard) he thinks observing the match. you reappear behind him and kick him in the square of the back, sending him flying. He quickly regains his composure and fires a shot at you. You jump up to avoid it, but it get your calf and you fall over. you get up as fast as you can and throw a shuriken at him. It grazes his cheek and he scowls at how easily he could have avoided that. He charges at you again and you disappear, reappearing at his side, punching his cheek. You punched him so hard, he was knocked out of bounds and you wre declared the winner. As soon as that happens, you run top speed over to Yusuke, who is standing up slowly. 'You ok?' you ask him. He smiles and says "Yep, guess I taught ya too good.." 'Guess you did, I hope you didn't bet on that match.' " No, I didn't." 'Well, I have to go face Hiei momentarily.....' "Yep, good luck kid, just remember, he is as fast as you are, if not faster." "Actually Yusuke, we trained using our speed and I'm a bit faster.' you say modestly. "That's great! Then you will win no doubt!" 'Thanks, I need all the luck I can get.' you say and walk with him to Yukina to get healed. You then go over to the sidelines to retrieve the katana. hermione wishes you good luck and you glance at hiei and see he is going onto the field, so you follow.  
  
When you are both in position, Kurama gives the go, and you both unsheath your katanas. You oth charge and you disappear before you make contact. You bring the katana down as you reappear behind him. He blocks and the blades stay locked for a moment. You both pull away and he automatically swings, not giving you time to block. The blade crashes into your side. You wince at the pain, but continue fighting. This goes on for another half hour. You and hiei blocking each other's blows in turn. Sometimes getting hit, others not. Suddenly, the pain from before comes back, shooting through your head and spine. Then, the pain is replaced by a numb feeling. As the feeling subsides, a red light engulfes you. When the light fades, you feel refreshed. hiei is staring at you with a weird look on his face. You use this as a chance to swing and you do. You knock the katana clear away from his hands. The croud gasps, nobody has ever managed to do that. This bringa him back from his daze and before he can lunge for his katana, you have the one in your own hands at his neck. 'Did I just win?' you ask aloud. "Yes, you won, fair and square." Hiei says. Yusuke then runs up to you "You won! You won kid you won! You actually beat HIEI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And look at ya!" 'Um..whoo? What wahat are you talking about? It's just me, isn't it?' you ask worried. "Oh that's right, you can't see yourself. Come on, we'll show you after you get healed." says Yusuke excitedly. So you go over to Yukina and she heals your side, arms and leg. Then you follow Yusuke and Keiko through the house to your room, where they open the bathroom door and shove you inside, standing at the doorway. You gasp when you see yourself. Your once brown and purple hair is now totally purple with lighter shades in certain places. Your hazel eyes are now dark blue and glitter like dancing flames /you are a fire demon..../ You also have ears and a tail that are almost maroon in color. 'Holy crap! What in Kami's name happened to me?!' you ask amazed. You hear Kurama say from behind Yusuke "That would be your demon form Ariana, when you call upon it, you will turn into that." he says calmly. 'Well, I can change back can't I?' "Of course, just will yourself to." he says. So you sit there thinking [turn back human, turn back human] the numb feeling washes over you again, and when you look back into the mirror, you see your old self staring back at you. 'Yay!' you say happily. You walk back with them into the kitchen for a late lunch.  
  
tune in soon for back to school shopping and the infamous first day of school 


	3. Back to School Blues

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, YuYu Hakusho or Harry Potter. I never will own anything but merchandise since I am (obviously) not Rumiko Takahashi, Yoshihiro Togashi or J.K Rowling. I do however own Ariana, Jeff and Cheryl, since they are from my brain!  
  
Key: '...'=Ariana speaking "..."=everyone else speaking [...]=Ariana's thoughts (...)=everyone else's thoughts ...=telepathic conversation /.../=author's notes  
  
summary ( the real one): The story of a 12 year old Ariana Carter. A girl who has been abused all her life. But what will happen when she saves a person who will save her in turn from her desolation, and what will happen when she meets a few more people who will change her life forever. Inu, YuYu & HP x-over  
  
rating: PG-13 for slight language ( me and my mouth), mentions of violence, and descriptions of brutal violence varied from abuse to battle.  
  
now, on with the story!  
Hard Knock Life  
By: Fallenangelscorn  
Chapter 3  
Back to School Blues  
  
After the day of the competition, was the day of orientation at Sarayashiki school. Keiko and Kurama were excited and all, but you Yusuke and Kuwabara were anything but excited about school starting. We join the story with the gang discussing why they like or dislike school...  
  
"Kid, we all know why Kuwabara and I don't like school, and we know why the two goody-two-shoes over there like school, but how come you don't? I mean, other than Keiko and Kurama, you're the smartest person I know!" says Yusuke, trying to understand, since you had not said your reason why. 'Well,' you begin, 'It's like this. When I was 11, in the 6th grade, my best friend, who was probably the most popular girl in 6th grade, invited me to a party. She had absolutely no idea about my situation. When I asked Jeff, he had agreed until the question of boys came up. He thought that if I went to a party with boys, then their 'dirty minds' as he put it, would influence me into doing 'inappropriate' things for an 11 year old girl if you know what I mean.' You pause and gaze at the look of sheer rage in Keiko's face. You had never seen her that angry, even when she was mad at Yusuke. You continue, 'So, the day of the party, I obviously didn't go, and no Yusuke, I wouldn't sneak out. Look at how that turned out when I saved you. Well anyways, the next week at school, because the party was on a Saturday, everyone was mad at me. I went to talk to Kara, the girl who had invited me and claimed to be my best friend, but she just shunned me away. Ever since then, everyone has thought that I think I'm better than everyone else because I didn't go to the party. Even new kids wouldn't talk to me, because thanks to Kara, I had guards that warned people of my 'conceitedness' . And, if you thought that wasn't reason enough for me not to like school, I was the object of everyone's torture for a long time. You would think I would have liked school, because it was away from Jeff, but it was no better, if not worse.' You finish, looking up. Kurama has a look of pity on his face, but Yusuke, Keiko and Kuwabara looked ready to kill. "You can't be serious." Keiko says finally. You just nod your head to show that you are. "But kids aren't that brutal! We were that age once! We were never that mean just because a kid didn't go to some stupid prep's party!" cries Keiko. 'I know, but times change.' You say softly. It hurt a lot worse than any gash from a katana to tell that story. Kara had been your best friend for a long time, and she had just dropped you and it was as if your friendship had never happened. You were just her prey now, something she could pick on and beat up whenever she felt like it because she had the teachers wrapped around her fingers like rings. 'But not anymore. I am an eighth grader now, and I have power, she won't be bothering me anymore' you say suddenly. "Ariana, you can't use your powers in school." Says Kurama. 'I know that. I'm just saying, I'll punch her lights out if she tries to pull any shit this year is all.' You say simply, as if it was no big thing. "Sorry kid, you won't, because I will have first." Says Yusuke, looking up. You haven't seen him this mad since the night that you saved his life and had gotten beaten for it. 'No Yusuke, I have to fight my own battles, and if it's a fight she is asking for, then a hospital visit is what she'll get' you say darkly, standing up. 'I'll see you guys in a bit, I'm going to get ready for orientation, you should do the same, it's 4:00, we have to be there at 6:00 and Keiko, I don't mean to sound rude, but you take a while to get ready and it's a substantial ride.' She laughs at this and you walk with her back to the girl's hallway and you go into your room, while Keiko goes to hers. When you walk in, you see Hermione curled up with a book on the windowsill. 'Hey Mia /your new nickname for her, Hermione was too long to say all the time/ What are you reading?' she doesn't say a word, she just lifts the book so you can see the cover. It was a book called Transfiguration, grade 6. you knew it didn't mean like 6th grade in the Ningenkai, but the 6th year of Hogwarts /she explained this all in part 1 to those of you who are oblivious/ 'Oh, ok, enjoy it, I have to get ready for our orientation.' You say, and walk to your dresser. You pull out a black collared shirt /I don't like saying polo, because it doesn't have the little dude on the shirt/ and some baggy black pants with a neon green stripe down the sides. You then go to another drawer and pull out some fishnet arm warmers, a bunch of black snap bracelets, a leather entwined belt like bracelet and your anarchy shoes. You go into the bathroom and are dressed in a matter of minutes. You then decide that you eally want to leave an impression on your new teachers. You put on some maroon lipstick and some black eyeliner and shadow. Then you go to the jewelry box and pull out a black stud and a black hoop with charms on it. You put them in, then you get a fake earring and put it on your cartlidge. You go over to your full body mirror and look at yourself. [Hm, I look like a freak. I wonder what they will say...] you think, smiling to your self. You walk out of the bathroom and walk over to Hermione. 'Hey Mia, how do I look?' you say laughing. She looks at you and gasps. "I see you want to make a good impression on your teachers!" she says, laughing with you. 'Well I have to go, got to scare more people, corrupt the earth, ya know, the usual.' "Ok, have fun, just don't blow up the world, I'm rather fond of it." 'Ok, I'll try.' You say jovially, then walk out into the hallway. You stride towards the living room, occasionally, you walk past someone and they gawk at you. You just laugh at this and keep walking. When you get to the living room, nobody is there. So, you sit down and wait for one of then to show up. As it turns out, Kuwa is the first one done. "Who are you?!" he asks when he see you. You laugh and say ' WAH! My brother doesn't recognize me! I feel oh sooo loved!!!' "Ar-Ariana?" he stammers. 'Well yeah, unless some other demon is possessing me and I'm unaware.' You laugh again as he just stammers. Then, Yusuke comes in and says "Kuwabara, you finally lose it?" Kuwa says nothing, just points to you. Yusuke looks over at you and says "Ariana?" You are getting tired of this little game 'Nope, this isn't Ariana, this is demon possessing Ariana so she can kill you in your sleep and you won't do anything about it, because it's her.' You say then laugh evilly. "That's her alright..." says Yusuke, now laughing as well. Just then, Kurama walks in, and the process begins all over. Once you are all there, and Keiko has gaped at you as well, you all say goodbye, and everyone looks at you weirdly except for Hermione and Hiei. Hiei does however, look disgusted at the outfit Keiko is wearing. She is wearing a white tanktop and a floral miniskirt with tennis shoes. Her outfit looks very happy, a bit too happy for Hiei's or your liking. However, they are all still your friends, Despite their choices of clothing.  
  
Kurama drove you all to the school once you got to the human world, since Yusuke had his license, but you all preferred not getting killed. When you get to the school, you see all the people with their parents going inside. Jeff had always taken you, and it would seem a bit awkward going alone to you. You all go to the gym and get your schedules. You feel a twinge of jealousy when you see that Keiko Kuwabara and Yusuke had all their classes together, while you and Kurama were alone all day. You figured that Kurama had friends at school, so really, you were going to be the only one alone. 'Well see you guys later, have fun.' you say and start walking away. "Where are you going?" asks Keiko. 'Well, I'm going to meet my teachers, that's what you're supposed to do during orientation, is it not?' "We meant where are you going alone?" says Kurama. 'Well, you all have different classes than me.' You say. "So? We want to see the torture you have to go through. I bet you have some of the teachers we had. Do you have Akashi?" asks Yusuke. 'Yeah, I have him 2nd period. We all have lunch for 5th period right?' you ask worried you might not see them at all, all day. "yep" they all say in unison. 'Ok good. So, are we going to meet Kurama's teacher's, all of your teacher's or my teacher's first?' you ask. "Ariana, can you call me Shuichi in the Ningenkai, it's the name I go by here." Kurama says quietly. 'Yeah sure Shuichi, why would I call you anything else?' "Ok, let's go meet the squirt's teacher's first." Says Kuwa. So you all walk along the hallways until you reach hall S, for your first period. /Your schedule is like this/  
  
Class / teacher / period  
  
Science / Mr. Takahasho / 1  
  
Lang.Arts / Mr. Akashi / 2  
  
Reading / Ms. Ataharo / 3 Band / Mrs. Minanimo / 4 Lunch 5 W. Geo. / Mr. Amakishi / 6 Algebra/ Ms. Rumikona / 7 /I know in middle school, you only have 6 periods, oh well/  
  
So you go and meet all of your teachers. You scare most of them, except Akashi, who is disgusted that you know Yusuke, and Rumikona, who just smiles at your individuality. Next you go and meet Kurama's teachers, then finally Yusuke, Kuwa and Keiko's teachers. You are all laden with papers of the supplies you need. As you are driving home, yusuke strikes up the conversation again. "Hey kid, how come you take band. Isn't that for geeks?" You give him a death glare and say 'have you ever been in my room Yusuke?' "Well yeah....." 'What have you seen in there?' 'I sthis a trick question?" Now Keiko cuts in "You dunce, she plays percussion!" 'Thanks Keiko.' "But what is that?" asks Yusuke confused. 'Must you be so dense at times? Percussion is the drums, xylephone, triangle, that sort of thing. I happen to play drums!' "Oooooooh, is that why you have a drum set in your room?" You and Keiko sweat drop. You decide to have a little fun. So you say to him in his head I think my brother is rubbing off on you You suppress a grin as he looks wildly around trying to see who it is. You decide to continue. Yeah, you have been spending way too much time with him. Why don't you start hanging out with Keiko more often. She complains that you don't spend time with her and it is sickening. This time he thinks back That you Hiei? You are sickened that he can't even recognize your voice. DOES HIEI HAVE A BROTHER?!?!?!?!? HE HAS A SISTER, BUT NOT A BROTHER!!!!!! Ariana? ding-ding-ding, you win the grand prize. You are looking at him straight faced, innocently, and he shoots you an icy glare. Yusuke, I wouldn't do that. I can read minds, and your mind is extra weak when you sleep At this, he looks at you in horror and you just raise your eyebrows and smirk. "Um, we're home." Says Kuwabara, breaking the silence. You get out of the car and Yusuke punches you in the arm, not hard, but hard enough to say that wasn't funny. You just smirk at him and say Are you having that dream about the bunnies lately? Because everyone else would LOVE to hear about that dream. You wouldn't Wouldn't I? and with that, you walk into the house.  
  
The next day, you all go back to school shopping. Kurama drives again and you go top the mall to go back to school shopping. But this time, everyone comes. The magic folk need some 'muggle' clothes and the feudal era guests need some modern clothes. For the time being, they are all borrowing, except for Shippo, who couldn't fit into anything. Inuyasha had to wear a bandana over his head, so his ears wouldn't show. You all split up. You Hiei, Shizuru and Hermione heading off to Hot Topic, Torrid /for you, Shizuru amd Hermione/ and the school supplies bazaar. Meanwhile, everyone else had gone off to Charlotte Russe, Wet Seal, Limited too, d.e.m.o. and all those other preppy stores you can think of, along with the school supplies bazaar. While in Hot Topic, you look at various arm warmers and such things, while Shizuru is looking at shirts, Hermione is in the fitting room and Hiei is looking at posters. When you all emerge, Hermione has a half dozen bags at least, while you three are only burdened with one or two each. Next you go to Torrid, so the three of you can get a new dress or two, while Hiei just sits outside, looking at his 'Nightmare Before Christmas' poster. Half an hour later, the three of you come out and have two new bags. Now you go to the school supplies bazaar to get some things and wait for the others. You have all your school supplies within the hour, but you are waiting there gor another two hours before everyone else shows up. They have too many bags to count between them all. You laugh as you see Yusuke laden with bags from head to toe, while Keiko carries four or five bags. Shizuru laughs as well, because she sees Kuwabara in the same predicament, but looking pleased, with Yukina walking next to him carrying two bags. Hiei starts to growl as he sees this but you tell him Chill out, she is using him as a bag carrier, look He calms down a bit then. Yusuke, Keiko, Kuwabara and Kurama head into the bazaar while the rest walk over to you four. They collapse from the weight of the bags. You sit and laugh at them. You end up sitting there for another hour before the four of them walk over to the rest of you. By now, you are really bored. You have been sitting on the same bench for two and a half hours with nothing to do. You all load into Yusuke's van, Kurama's car and Botan's SUV, which she borrowed for the trip. You pile into Yusuke's van, unafraid of his poor driving skills, along with Keiko, Shizuru, Hiei, Hermione and Sango. 'Sango, aren't you afraid?' you ask her. "No, not at all, after riding on Kirara, this should be a piece of cake!" 'Ok, glad to hear!' You hear Yusuke shout "Here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and he slams on the gas. All six of you /minusing Yusuke/ go flying backwards. You sit back up and help up a dazed Sango and Hermione. The trip goes fairly well. By the time you are almost home, all of your hair is messedup. Suddenly, Yusuke slams on the breaks. "We're here!" he announces. A bit dizzy, you hop out of the van, carrying your bags back to your room. You and Hermione unpack all of your new things and you leave Hermione to get dressed. When you go into the living room, you see all your 'foreign' guests are in new outfits of their own. You observe what types of clothing they had picked. Shippo looked adorable in his little boy clothes, but he was having trouble with his tail, so they had to cut a hole in them for him. Inuyasha had chosen the ghetto approach. The giant jerseys and low riding shorts. Miroku actually was dressed like Kurama. Sango had chosen a more tom boyish route, although she did have a few girly features, like big earrings. Kagome was dressed very girly, you guessed when she wasn't in the feudal era she dressed like that. Harry, Ron and Neville were dressed kinda plain, not really any kind of style. Myoga was nowhere to be seen, not that he could've gotten anything anyways. Luna was dressed kind of book wormish, like a school girl, a plain white shirt and a blue skirt. That sort of stuff. Ginny on the other hand, had gone down the same road as Inuyasha. She had on some tight jeans and an even tighter shirt, along with earrings ten times bigger than Sango's, but it worked for her. Now the only person left to see was Hermione. You hear someone cough behind you and you turn around but nobody is there. So you go around the corner, and you gasp as you see Hermione. She has on a purple tube-top and a black jacket over it, with a black mini-skirt, fishnets and combat boots, not to mention a spiked choker, a blink 182 cuff, and many snap bracelets. Her eyes are lined and she has on a shade of lipstick similar to what you wore to orientation, plus black fingernails. 'Wow Mia. Wow.' "Do I really look that bad?" she questions, looking down at herself as best she can. 'No, Mia, you look great! C'mon!' "Ok, if you say so, she says and lets you pull her into the living room but not before you say 'AHEM, presenting, Ms. Mia Granger.' And step to the side. She walks into the living room and Ron's breath catches in his throat. You laugh at this. You have noticed for a while that Ron likes Hermione, but haven't said anything. Nobody says anything for a minute, but then Ron whistles and claps. She blushes and looks down. Then you realize, she likes him too! After everything settles down, you go over to where Ron and Harry are. You have to keep this a secretive, so you say in Ron's head Ron, don't worry, it's me Ariana, I'm telepathic, meet me in the kitchen in 10 minutes, I have to tell you something ok? Just think back He looks at you weird then thinks What do you need to tell me? I can't tell you in here. Hiei could intercept it, he's telepathic too. So just go in 10 minutes ok? Fine whatever, this better be worth it Oh trust me, it is and with that, you get up and walk down the hall ways into the kitchen. Sure enough about eleven minutes later, Ron comes into the kitchen. "Ok, what was so important you couldn't say it in the living room?" he asks. 'Well, if you're going to be irritable, I won't tell you' you say, swinging your legs from the counter. "Fine! What is it? Do you have a crush on me or something?" 'EW! DON'T FLATTER YOURSELF!' "Jee, thanks, so what is it?" 'It's about Hermione. SHE likes you.' You say simply. "Really?!" 'Yeah...why would I make something like that up Ron?' "Um...I dunno, but thanks!" 'Oh yeah! And thank you for betting on me in that fight. Not many people think that someone my size could be all that strong..' "Yeah, but have you seen Hiei?" 'Yeah, guess you're right.' "Thanks again Ariana, I appreciate it" 'Good, now go ask her out. I know you like her too, it's pretty obvious!' you say, jumping off the counter and walking back to the living room, but not before sayng 'Ron, stay her for a few minutes so nobody is suspicious!' and then you disappear. About five minutes later in the living room, Ron comes back in and then gets Hermione and goes somewhere. When they come back, they both are grinning. [I did ok] you think then resume watching Ginny and Harry play an animated game of wizarding chess.  
  
The day had finally come. The first day of school. You were dressed in some of your new clothes, but mostly old ones. You wear a black tank top that says 'Excuse me while I find a container for my joy' with a picture of a jar and in the jar ia a smiley fac and a rainbow /another hot topic shirt, gotta love that store/ and a black mini skirt with buckles on it. Then you wear black and red thigh high socks and your buckle combat boots. You also wear a black chocker with a spiked heart on it and your snap bracelets over some black and red arm warmers with the Emily the Strange cat on them. You do your usual makeup, grab your bag /which is a bag with the Emily the Strange cats on it/ and head downstairs. You go into the kitchen and grab an apple and some water. Once you finish breakfast, you plop down on the couch and wait for the others. At about 6:30, and nobody is downstairs, you go and bang on Yusuke's door. He answers, wearing rubber ducky pajama's. 'Oh, are you planning on wearing that to school Yusuke, it's 6:30.' This wakes him up. He slams the door in your face, so you go to Kurama's room. When you knock on the door, Kurama answers immediately fully dressed and ready to go. 'Yay! Someone's ready. Will you go wake up my brother while I get keiko?' "Sure." 'Thanks!' you say and run to the girl's wing. You knock on Keiko's door and she answers after a few knocks, in a nightgown. She sees you fully dressed then says "What time is it?" 'It's 6;30 Keiko!' "AH! I OVERSLEPT!" she says "Sorry, but have to get ready!" Before you can rely, she too has slammed the door in your face. [Seems to happen a lot] you think and go back down to the living room. When you sit down, you see a groggy brother, dressed, but asleep where he sat. You decide to have a look see at what he was dreaming and probed his mind. the dream Kuwa is running along the beach in swim trunks, running towards....Yukina. She is in a bathing suit as well, but it isn't her body, /just her head if you know what I mean./ Before they meet, you stop looking, afraid to see something you really don't want to see. At 6:55, Keiko, Kurama and Yusuke run into the room and out the door. You run after them, dragging Kuwa with you. He wakes with a start and demands to know why you are dragging him and his book bag out the door. 'Hm, maybe because we have SCHOOL!' you shout, then jump into the van. Yusuke was driving today. You hightail it to school and you tell them you'll meet them at lunch, then run top speed to first period. You jump into the nearest available seat as the bell is ringing. First period goes by rather quickly, as do 2nd and 3rd period because all you are doing is filling out information about yourself. At 4th period, the band teacher lets you demonstrate the first piece of the percussion, so you rock your heart out. A 4th period bell rings, signifying lunchtime. You are the first one out the door. You pull out your lunch from your bag that you packed last night and survey the cafeteria. You finally spot your brother's nasty hair color and make your way over there. 'Hi guys!' you say as you sit down. "Hey kid" says Yusuke, "Ariana" Kurama, "Hey!" Keiko, "hey sis" Kuwa. You pull out your lunch and Yusuke and Kuwa's eyes pop out and their tongues roll out of their mouths. The first thing you pulled out was an insulated cup of ramen. As you guys sit and eat your lunch, you talk. About 10 minutes in, you feel a tap on your shoulder. You turn and see Kara and her cronies smirking at you. "See girls, I told you she thought she was better than us, she can't even sit with her own grade!" Kara says smiling. You ignore her and continue munching on your ramen. She pulls you around "Carter! I'm not done talking to you!" 'Well that's great, but I'm done talking to you' you say icily 'So go back topit you dragged yourself out of.' "Oh Carter bad move, maybe I'll just tell your daddy. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll kick you, break your rib again, that way we won't have to see your ugly face again for a while." She says smugly. You don't say anything, but Yusuke /who is sitting across from you, sees your blood boiling. Kara notices as well so she continues "Oh that's right! You don't have a daddy! You're daddy died! And your foster daddy beats you, how sad. Your life must be hard." She says fake sympathetically. 'If you do not stop talking about our parents you'll regret it.' You say quietly enough for her to hear it. "Aw, she made up an imaginary sibling, how sweet, now someone can pretend to love her!!" she says smiling at seeing you angry. "Actually" says Kuwabara standing up "I am her brother and if you don't get away from her and stop talking about our parents, you'll regret it." He says placidly. Now Yusuke stands up. "And all four of us love her dearly little girl, so unless you would like to visit America, I suggest you leave." Unlike most people, Kara had not heard about Yusuke, so she ignored him. "Ya know, I wish I could have bodyguards. Must be nice having people who pretend to love you and that bullshit. Or are they actors? I know you could afford it Carter, so don't joke." This time, before Yusuke, Kuwabara or anyone else can stand up, you have jumped up. 'That was the last straw Kara. You can insult me, but my family and only friends are another story.' You say so icily it could freeze hell. Then before she can reply, you punch her in the stomach and she doubles over in pain 'Get up you bitch. Or are you all talk and no action? I've had to deal with your shit for too long and now you can't even stand up to me? You're pathetic you wench. If you ever insult me or my family and friends again, you will regret the day that you invited me to that little party.' Without you noticing, she takes her nails and drags them along your leg. You don't even wince, a katana hurt a hell of a lot more than fingernails. You pull her up by her hair and punch her in the nose as hard as you can muster. You let go and she drops to her knees, blood gushing through the fingers covering her nose. "MS. CARTER!" erupts through the cafeteria. You look up and see Mr. Takenaka staring at you. "Carter, Urameshi, Kuwabara, my office NOW!" he yells and storms out of the room. You kick Kara in the ribs once, softly and say to her, so only she can hear 'That's what happened to me kara, when I asked if I could go to your party. Think before you speak from now on, because I'm not the same girl' and then you follow Yusuke and Kuwa out the door.  
  
When you get to Takenaka's office, you plop down in one of the chairs in front of his desk, Yusuke sitting next to you, Kuwa behind you both. Takenaka comes in 20 minutes later and begins his speech "Ms. Carter I am ashamed of you. I would expect this from Mr. Urameshi or Mr. Kuwabara but you? You broke Ms. Roland's nose I'll have you know. You say to Yusuke quickly Good, the bitch has been asking for it for 2 years Damn straight, if you hadn't of done that, she'd be dead thanks hen you turn your attention back to Takenaka. "Ms. Carter, because it is the first day of school, you won't be suspended, but you have detention for a week! And if I catch you fighting again, it'll be much worse punishment, ask your friends about that. Now, care to tell me why you broke Ms. Roland's nose?" 'Not particularly, it's ersonal, and it is something nobody can do anything about, contrary to what is believed.' You say looking down. "Ms. Carter, I demand the answer or you will be suspended." 'Fine, you want to know so bad? The man who was supposed to be my caretaker, Jeff Carter? He beat me Mr. Takenaka, are you happy. He beat me until the beginning of Summer break, and then I left his house. Ms. Roland knew and she antagonized me about it because I didn't go to her rinky-dink party in 6th grade. Sorry if you want a better answer, but that's all you'll get out of me.' You say coldly. "Ms. Carter , those are serious accusations, do you have proof?" 'yes I do. Several types of proof. Mr. Urameshi as you refer to him as, knows what they are. Nobody else knows the proof, though Kazuka knows the situation, as do Mr. Minimono and Ms. Yukimura if you need furthur standbys. "Fine, Mr. Urameshi, would you care to tell me this evidence?" "Sure, on one condition." He says "And what would that be?" Yusuke pulls together an amount of curage he hadn't had to use since he fought Toguro in the Dark Tournament. "If we help you, you have to make sure either my mother, Kuwa's sister, Keiko's parents of Mrs. Minamino adopt Ariana. That way she won't have to live in a dingy orphanage." You look over at him and grin. He grins back at you and gives you a thumbs up. You turn around and smile at Kuwa as well and he grins too. Takenaka thinks on it and says "I'll see what I can do. Now, the evidence?" "Fine, the evidence is clear. On piece of evidence, a big piece, is well, me." "What do you mean, some of the evidence is you?!" "I witnessed That bastard throw her into a coffee table and kick her and punch her." "well, does she have a mark to show that you were thrown into a coffee table?" 'Um, I'm right here, why don't you ask me?' you say "Fine, do you have proof of this accusation?" 'Sure do.' You say and lift your bangs. When Yukina healed you, she was told not to heal everything, so they could form a case against Jeff. Takenaka gasps at the large scar across your forehead, where the glass had cut you. "There is more evidence" Yusuke continues. "look at her medical records Takenaka. She has had more broken bones than me and Kuwa put together." "I did find that odd, but it's not solid." 'Fine, then suspend me, because there is nothing else.' You say dully. At this point, you have had your wit's end with adults and this one was pushing your buttons. "Well, no Ms. Carter, you will report to detention all this week and I will have this case investigated, until then, if you would please stay at Jeff carter's house, I would appreciate that. You may go." Yusuke shoots you a glance and the three of you leave. 'Screw that. I'm staying at Koenma's if nobody adopts me. They won't take me to an orphanage, I'll kill them and don't think I won't.' "I don't doubt you, besides, one of us will adopt you, you know that!" says Kuwa brightly. "Probably Me and Shiz." 'Thanks. Now I guess we should get back to lunch?' "Sounds good to me!" says Yusuke and you all start walking back towards the cafeteria.  
  
When you get back to the table, Keiko sees the happy looks on your faces and says "What happened?" 'Well, I got detention for a week, and Takenaka is going to put out an investigation on Jeff, but I might have to go to an orphanage if the arrest him.' "Which is why one of us is going to adopt her!" says Yusuke happily. "Either, Me and Shizuru, Urameshi, you Keiko or you Shuchi!" says Kuwa laughing. 'But it will probably be my brother and sister, so you guys don't have to worry about it!' you say then sit down and begin to munch on a rice ball. You pass the container around, since Kuwa and Yusuke had finished their lunches long before. When 6th period bell rings, you tell them you'll see them long after school. "No you won't I have detention, I was mouthing off in one of my classes!" says Yusuke. 'Yay! Company!' you say, then head of the Geography. You notice Kara's seat conveniently empty and smile broadly as the entire class glares at you. 'Aw, do you all miss your leader? What will you do without her? Think for yourselves? The HORROR!!!!!!!' you cry then go sit in the corner of the room. 5th and 6th period go the same as the first three, then you head back into the cafeteria for detention. You see Yusuke and your brother, so you wave and go sit by them. You get a few glares on the way to the table from more of Kara's followers. When you sit down you say to them quietly 'Those poor dears! They have to think now that their precious bitch isn't here to lead them to the gates of Hell!' The two boys laugh at this and you smile. Then you lay your head down and talk to Yusuke and your brother for the two hours of detention telepathically. You talked about the school day, how much school sucked, and how funny it was to see that bitch fall. When the two hours were up, you walked down the street with them and hopped into the van to go back to Koenma's. first you stop by Yusuke's so he can tell his mother something and get some things. Then you stop at the Minamino's for the same reason and the Yukimura's. Then you go down into the forest, through the portal and into Spirit World. You run up to your room and say Hi to Hermione then tell her about your day. She congratulates you and then you go downstairs into the living room to watch Fuse since it was 5:00 and time for 'Dedicate Live'. You were extremely happy when 'I Hate Everything About You' came on, because you sang along and then your dedication came up it was to Jeff from you and it said 'I used to love you, to bad you had to be a horrible father and a prick, rot in hell, HEY I'M ON TV!' you smiled and they looked at you strangely. 'Hey, I was on t.v, that's not an everyday thing!'  
  
The rest of the week went by like tat. On Wednesday, her royal highness Kara reappeared in school, but she left you alone. That Friday when you came home, you and Yusuke go inside /Yusuke made sure he got detention every day so you wouldn't be bored/ you see nobody there. So you both go into the kitchen and gasp as you see something on the table! You cautiously walk over to the table and are about to pick it up when.......  
  
Ok, my first cliffhanger sue, me I think I've done an ok job now reply to my ONE review  
  
Tigermage: thanks! I'm glad that you like it, and I hope you like chapters 2 & 3 as well  
  
Please review! It only takes a minute! I accept flames as well, just don't expect a particularly nice answer back :)  
  
Tune in next time for : chapter 4 – the many surprises 


	4. Training Day

Disclaimer: Just your friendly neighborhood reminder that I'm not Rumiko Takahashi, Yoshihiro Togashi or J.K. Rowling. I don't know any of them personally either, so I might never know them either.

Summary: Ariana Carter, a 12 year old girl who has been abused all of her life, is in for a shock. When she saves a boy from being fried by a demon, he will in turn, save her, from the destitute that is her life. On that journey, they will meet more people who will change Ariana's life forever, but when four people are threatening to take all of it away from her, what can they all do to stop the madness? Inuyasha, Harry Potter, YuYu Hakusho x-over

key:

'...'= Ariana speaking

"..."= everyone else speaking

/.../=author's notes

[...]= Ariana thinking

(...)=everyone else thinking

NOTE: School is starting up again, so updates are going to be a bit slower, but I'll keep at it, don't worry!

Hard Knock Life

chapter 4

Training Day

Ariana gasped as she heard a loud voice in her head that wasn't her own say DON'T TOUCH IT! It sounded like Hiei, so you listen. Just then, he walks into the kitchen and goes over to the table. He observes the note on the table. It was only one word : BEWARE. He cautiously unsheathed his katana and poked it, and it exploded, sending all of you flying backwards into each other.You landed in a heap on the floor and got up rubbing the side you had landed on. [Good thing I listned to him] you think as you look at the kitchen. Then you see, the kitchen wasn't damaged at all. 'Wow, how is that possible?' you wonder aloud. "Oh, this place is resistant to that sort of thing, if it wasn't, it wouldn't be here anymore!" says Yusuke. 'Oh, that makes sense.' you say. "Hey, let's eat, I'm starved!" says Yusuke heading towards the fridge. 'You have a one track mind, you know that?' you say laughing. Keiko agrees by nodding her head vigerously. Just then, your stomach rumbles. 'Heheheh, I guess my stomach agrees with Yusuke, huh?' you say sweatdropping. Yusuke laughs and says "Well, ha! The kid's stomach agrees with me, so I must be right!" You laugh as well, then walk over to the fridge.'I'll make some dinner. It will be ready in a little bit!' you say cheerfully, then start taking out supplies. /Remember, they don't get back from detention until 5:00/

At 7:00, dinner is ready and you use your telepathy to send the message Dinner is ready if you want it! to everyone /all 21 of them/ Instantly, Yusuke is sitting at the table with a fork, spoon and knife. You laugh and wait for everyone else. Eventually, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Ron are pounding their fists on the table. "FOOD! FOOD ! FOOD!" they shout in unison. Finally, Yukina arrives and you say 'NOW we can have dinner!' and bring out a big tray with plates on it. First, you serve dumplings. They are gone within 10 minutes. 'I have a surprise for all of you, some of you probably have never had what I am going to serve for dinner, but I think you'll like it!' you say excitedly. "Well, on with it!" shouts Yusuke. 'For that, you get yours last!' you say triumphantly, then disappear back into the kitchen. You re-emerge with many platters. You set them down in front of everyone, then give Yusuke his and then sit down yourself. Hermione takes one look and grins "HAMBURGERS AND FRIES!!!!" she cries, then starts stuffing her face. Ron looks at her like she has three heads since he had never seen her eat like that, then shrugs and scarfs his own. Kuwa is poking his nervously, then takes a bite and smiles, before eating the rest in three bites. Everyone else maintains a steady eating habit, except for Yukina, who is eating a salad rather than a hamburger. You prepared it speacially for her since she is a vegetarian. /I don't really know if she is or not, but here, she is/ After dinner, you go back into the kitchen with Hermione and set down bowls of ice cream in front of everyone. "Here's how this works, just think of the type of ice cream you want and that is the flavor it will be!" she says proudly. Hiei's eyes light up as he realizes just what is before him. "Sweet snow!" and he does the same thing Hermione had previously done. You laugh and then go to eat your vanilla ice cream.

Once everyone is done, Hermione mumbles a spell and all the dishes are clean. Botan suggests a game and you all agree. "Lets play truth or dare!" she suggests. Everyone instantly says "NO!" so she sits down again. 'How about twister? We can play in rounds, like we did in the tournament.' you say. That sounds like a pretty good idea to everyone, so you go up to your room and pull out the set. You decide to spin for the first round. Myoga and Koenma say the aren't playing and go off to play cards. The rounds go like this /yes I'm doing it again/

1: Hermione, Inuyasha, Yukina, Kuwabara & Ginny

2: Ron, Yusuke, Kurama, Kagome & Keiko

3: Ariana, Sango, Luna, Miroku & Harry

4: Hiei, Shippo, Neville, Shizuru & Botan

'The winner from each round will go on to the finals.' you say, 'Now, let the twisting begin!' The battles were fierce and went on for a long time. Eventually the victors for each game were determined. Hermione had taken the win when she was able to do right foot green, left foot red, right hand blue and left hand yellow, which sent Inuyasha tumbling. Kurama was able to win in his game. You manage a win barely, when Miroku slips and lands on a very annoyed sango, who slaps him and gets pushed into harry who then trips Luna up. [Chain reaction] you think, getting up. Finally in the last game, Hiei was about to win when, he had to move his left foot to red, causing him to fall and pronouncing Botan the winner. Everyone else was cheering for who they wanted to win in the finals. Yukina was spinning for it, and Yusuke was refereeing. Kurama was really feeling the heat, being the only guy to take a victory. (Guess those years as a thief really paid off) he thinks. "Are you all ready?" asks Yukina, who is sitting on the couch in front of them with the spinner. "Yeah, we're ready" calls Botan and Yukina spins the spinner. /an hour later/ Everyone is still holding strong, but are all tied up in knots. Yukina calls out the next move "Kurama, right hand yellow" he manuevers around and manages to get his hand on a yellow spot, but he is shaking a bit. Then Botan had to move her right foot to green, which causes her to tip over. She dusts herself off, then smiles, stretching her muscles and sits down on the side to watch in amazement at the coordination the three of you have. Finally, Kurama falls over, so it's just you and Hermione. "Ariana, right foot red." says Yukina excitedly. You reach over Hermione's arm with your foot and then slip. Hermione manages to keep her composure, but just barely. You look at the spot you had put your foot on and see that it is wet. 'Who spilled water on my twister mat?!' you question. Kuwa looks at it and then starts whistling stupidly. You get an anger vain on your forehead and everyone steps back nervously, leaving Kuwa trembling. You stomp over to him and rap him on the head with your fist, leaving a giant bump on his head. Yukina bursts out laughing and Kuwa just stares at her disbelieving. Yukina just keeps on laughing, not noticing that everyone is now staring at her the same way. She stops finally, then sees all the faces and sweatdrops. "Um, heheh." she shrugs her shoulders, "So, Our winner is Hermione!" Hermione, who had stayed on the mat, greatfully got up and curtsied. "Thank you, thank you." (That's going to save her life one day) Hiei thinks watching her laugh as she and you talk.

'Hey! Let's watch a movie!' you say. "Are you nuts? I'm beat!" declares Keiko. 'But it's only just 11:00!' you cry. "Well, I'm going to sleep, good night everyone." she says yawning and getting up. "Yeah, make that two of us." says Kagome, getting up as well, then stretching. They both leave, then you look and see that Inuyasha's face has taken on a pink hue. Mia you say Look at Inuyasha, I think a certain hanyou has a crush She looks over then a wide grin spreads on her face Yeah, I think so too. Think we can use this to our advantage? Absolutely PROJECT! you both giggle aloud and everyone looks at you like you're crazy. 'Yes? Do you have a question?' you say innocently. They just shake their heads very slowly. You laugh again, then go over to the movie rack and pick out 'Mortal Kombat' then pop it into the vcr and press play. 'I think this is a suitable video' you joke, then plop down on your favorite chair, a big smooshy armchair that you can curl up in it's so big. So, you all watch the movie, then head off to bed. 'Mia?' "Yeah Ari?" 'Do you think that we should start all of you guy's training tomorrow?' "Definately" 'Good, then that is what we'll do, since I'm teaching more than the rest of them. I'm teaching with daggers, shurikens, I'm helping Yusuke with combat, AND Hiei and Inuyasha with sword fighting, "Jeez! Bet you're really excited." she says sarcastically. 'I know, isn't it special?' "VERY" 'Good night, I have to get up early and help Yukina with breakfast' "NO! Sleep in for ONCE!" 'Fine, I will, I guess' you say, then lay down, turn off your light and fade into a light sleep.

At 6:30, you wake up and go downstairs. When you get to the kitchen though, you see Yukina already making breakfast with Hermione. 'What are you doing?' you ask yawning. "I'm giving you a break is what. Go into the living room and do something until breakfast ok?" she pleads. 'Fine.' you grumble, then turn the corner and.sit down onto the couch, only to be joined by Inuyasha a few minutes later. 'G'morning.' "Good morning." 'Hey, is Kagome awake yet, I need to ask her a question.' "No, I just checked on her and shes perfectly sound asleep." realizing what he had just said, he claps his hand over his mouth and turns cherry red. You begin to giggle uncontrollably. When you finally regain your composure, you say 'I KNEW IT! You like Kagome don't you? Not that it matters, but out of curiosity do you?' "And why exactly would I tell a child like you?" he asks incredulously. 'Well first off, I may be younger than you, but I'm NOT a little child like Shippo in case you haven't noticed. And secondly, it's for my own personal usage that I know if someone likes another person. There are 22 people here and somebody is bound to like somebody else.' you say simply. 'Little girl, there is NOT a reason in the world you could possibly have to want to know that sort of information, secondly, do you really want me to kick your ass?" 'Hm, let's ponder on that subject shall we? I won the tournament, not you, I beat Hiei, you didn't I'm an S level demon and you're only a B level hanyou. Should I continue?' "I don't care how strong you think you are kiddo, if I don't know the reason, I don't give an answer, it's that simple, aside from our strengths and weaknesses." 'Fine. Do you really want to know why I find it ever so important to know these things?' you ask sighing. "Yeah, you know what, I do." 'Fine. The reason is, I thought I didn't have anyone in the world who loved me, or cared even slightly for me, and then I came here, and so many people actually gave a rat's ass whether I am alive or dead. I want to know because none of you know what it's like to be so unloved for so long, except for maybe Harry, but even the Dursleys didn't beat him. Nobody will know just how awful the first 12 years of my life were, and I don't want the people I care about to have to go through what I went through for so long.' You can feel the tears come to your eyes and you brush them away quickly, so he won't see. You hate for people to see you cry, so you hardly do it around anyone. "Ariana? Are you ok?" 'Yeah, I'm fine, now answer the question. Do you like Kagome?' "Well, I dunno why I'm telling you this. but yeah, I care about Kagome. Her past self, Kikyo, I was in love with her, and Kagome is like her in so many ways..." he trailed off. You just nod, understanding his confusion. After all, you yourself are a reincarnation.

At 10:00, everyone has eaten breakfast and are ready to go outside for the training. Your dagger class You look at your 'pupils' Neville, Luna and Hermione. They were watching you intently, waiting for instruction. 'Well, the art of the dagger isn't hard to master. You simply have to have the ability to keep your concentration. When I call one of you up, you are going to take a set of daggers. I'll show you how to hold them and such. You'll each get a set of daggers. I dunno whether you are keeping them or not, Koenma just said to use these for now. Now, Luna, why don't we start with you? Oh god, I sound like a real teacher. Luna, you first k?' "Sure" she says, jumping up and walking towards you. You hand her a pair of scis and show her how to hold them. Once she had gotten how to hold them correctly, you performed a few small lunges, and she copied. You then do the same with Neville and Hermione. After an hour, Luna and Hermione understand fairly well, but Neville is still having a little trouble, so you show him the moves one more time. This time, a new look of determination crosses his face, and he does the moves perfectly. 'You guys did wonderful. We are going to keep at this for the next few days together, then you are going to train on your own, or spar with someone, understand?' you say finally. "Absolutely" they chorus. 'Well then, on to your next setion, which is with Yusuke, unless you'll be learning to use another weapon.' is your reply, before going over to your things and sheathing your daggers, then pulling out your shurikens.

your shuriken class You look at your two students with a grin on your face. Ginny and Hermione sit with 3 shurikens in hand, staring at you intently. 'Ok,' you begin, 'you're going to hold a shuriken by the edge like this' demonstratuing as you speak. 'Then, in order to throw it, your movement needs to be fluid. It's a mear flick of the wrist, but the way you flick it, will determine whether you hit your target or not. Hermione, you work on the flicking technique and Ginny, I want you to try and throw the shuriken at this target.' you hold up a blown-up picture of Jeff's head and she giggles, then begins chucking the shurikens at it. She does fairly well, only missing the target a few times, but missing the vitals of the head and neck most of the time. About a half an hour later, they switch and Hermione begins to throw them, while Ginny works on flicking her wrist correctly. Hermione has good aim, whih you already knew from the past class, and she hits the jugular, eyes, temples, and right between the eyes just about every time, which you are very happy about. After working like this for an hour, switching back and forth, you finally call them off, then give the same speech as you gave about the daggers. 'Now, I'm off to sword fighting!' "Hey, so am I!" says Ginny excitedly. "So am I!" says Hermione grinning. So the three of you head off down the field towards Hiei and Inuyasha, who are sparring.

sword fighting You look at the group surrounding you. Inuyasha and hiei would be teaching and you would be training, as well as helping the others with the techniques. Other than the girls, Harry is there, with a determined look on his face. 'Wait a minute!' you say, realizing something, 'Harry knows how to use a sword, don'tcha Harry?' He just looks down, then says "Well, kinda, I used the sword of Godric Griffindor against the basilisk when we were in second year and Ginny and Luna were in first, bu that was it." "Well that's better than nothing!" says INuyasha, itching to slash at them, yet eager to teach them how to defend themselves properly. Hiei was the same way, but not showing it. You however were about to send him a message, and could sense what he was feeling. So teach, you excited? you ask smugly NO, actually I'm not, we have to teach these stupid ningens to defend themselves, it's rediculous! he replies angrily. Yeah, well your brain has a funny way of showing it Mr. Jaganshi! huh? You heard me well enough, I can tell just by your voice you're looking forward to this, so don't bother lying to me Damn, you're worse than the fox, wait you ARE a fox! Ugh, now I have two of you on my case, that's just great Wow, I'm sooooo happy to know you care so much Hiei hn oh whatever! The two of you are just glaring at each other, getting odd stares from Ginny, Harry and Inuyasha. Hermione however, could tell by the way you were staring, that the two ofyou were warring telepathically. "So are we gonna have a staring contest or are we teaching the ningens how to use a sword?" asks Inuyasha finally. You each give one more death glare, then bring out three extra katanas. 'Ok, this is going to be wierd, because hiei and I use katanas, but Inuyasha's sword is made from his father's fang, so it usually isn't a katana, so he will be showing you tactics with the tetsuiga and we will be doing so with katanas, got it?' you ask. The group nods their heads and you hand them each a sheathed katana, then unsheath your own rental. You watch as it gleams in the sunlight, and wish silently [If only I had my own katana and not this imitation. Things would be so much easier, oh boy, maybe I'll be lucky and I'll get one for my birthday. Nah, nobody knows my birthday is September 20th and none of them will know. I never had a good birthday with Jeff, and I don't want anybody making a big deal out of my birthday, not now, not ever] You felt a slight tingling in your brain as you thought, but pushed it aside as heat fatigue and concentrated back to the group. Little did you know, but the tingling in your brain was Hiei, he had heard every word she had said. (But why wouldn't a young girl want to celebrate her birthday? What happened on her birthday that she doesn't want one anymore? I'm going to find out, she probably is still suffering, but I doubt she'd ever let anyone see, not even that Hermione girl. But there has to be something. Wait, do I actually acre about this little child? I think I do, she reminds me of what I wished Yukina was sometimes when I would look for her. Kami, this is so confusing, I haven't cared about anyone except Yukina, and now this? Ugh, I guess I'd better get to teaching, I can think about this later) he thinks as he unsheathes his katana slowly, letting it gleam in the sunlight and the three beginners to "oo" and "ah" at it. You already had the katana you were using unsheathed and Inuyasha had the tetsuiga unsheathed. He shook his head to rid himself of any last thoughts, then began to teach. Two hours later, that class was over. You begin to walk over to where Yusuke is, with his back turned to you.

'HIYA TEACH!' you yell as you jump on his back, knocking him over practically. You burst out laughing and jump down then look up at his annoyed yet amused face innocently. 'Are you mad at me Yusuke?' you ask with big sad puppy dog eyes. He laughs at your expression. "So kid, ready to get your butt kicked?" 'Only if you're ready to loose to a little girl!'you reply, unfased by his comment. "Alright then. I would say 'Let's go', but we have have to teach these kids though don't we?" 'Yeah, we do, but we are teaching them how to fight are we not?' "Oh yeah." he says evilly. 'You're going to feel so ashamed when the student teaches the master, oh wait! You already know what that feels like, don't you?' you smirk, as that still burned him a bit. His eye starts twitching and everyone laughs. All of them, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna were there, to learn to use their fists. 'So, anyone have prior experience fighting?' you ask, knowing very well one of them did. 'Well, since nobody cares to say it, cough HERMIONEcough I guess we will just have to practice the basics of punching,' "Ms. Granger care to demonstrate?" asks Yusuke, knowing full well about their third year at Hogwarts and the little incident that had happened involving a little wretch called Malfoy. So, Hermione gets up, after being pushed by Ron, and walks up to the two of you. "Ok, now puch me as hard as you can." says Yusuke unfased. "NANI?!" she cries, looking horrified. /you taught her a bit of Japanese/ "You heard me, just do it, I don't think a punch from you could hurt all that bad" he is still speaking monotone and she doesn't like it very much. You can see her practically steaming as he says this and she just puts on a very calm straight face. "Ok, so you want me to punch you?" she says boredly. "Yeah, that's the jest of it" he replies. "Oh ok" she replies, then pulls back her fist and sends it flying towards his stomach with all the strength she could muster at once into her fist. It hits the target it was aimed for, and Yusuke's calm face took on a new look, one of shock. He doubled over really fast, then stood back up and rubbed his stomach. "Damn, and I thought Keiko slapped hard, jeez." You just grinned and gave her a high five. 'So, are you ever going to doubt a girl's strength again?' you ask smugly. "URGH!" is his reply. You just laugh then walk back to the rest of them. Yusuke now stands up straight. "Ok, now, let's get to work now that the show offs are done." he gives a cold smile, then says "Oh yeah, my other teacher SHOULD be up here, but it appears she is too good for that" He doesn't realize what he has said, until he sees the look on your face. (What have you done you idiot!) he thinks (That stupid Kara girl used to say that to her, oh Kami why?! I might just be the worst brother ever, well partial brother anyways. Man, I should applogize...) He looks up to appologize, but only sees six cold stares, one especially icy. "That hurt her so badly you have no idea, do you?" asks Luna coldly. He begins to answer but Hermione cuts in "You claimed that you cared about her, but you just said word for word, the thing that she has hated the most her entire life" Yusuke just hangs his head, then pushes pastthem and heads towards the house. The first place he goes is your room, but you aren't in there. He checks all of the bedrooms /even his own/ and you aren't there. Next he checks the kitchen, dining room, even Koenma's office, but you are nowhere to be found. He runs back outside and everyone is just staring at him expectantly. "She isn't there! She's gone!" he cries. Hermione instantly is running towards the woods, so fast that she made them all stop and stare for a minute, then Hiei followed her. The two ran far into the forest, Hermione leading. You had told her about your secret place, so it was kindof like a club, only the two of you knew about it though. She runs onward, turning left and right occasionally, until they stand before a branchy tree. she starts climbing, but Hiei stops her. "Jus get on my back, we'll be u faster." "No, I need to do this alone, you stay down here, you shouldnt have even come. She won't want to talk to any guys right now, just go let them know we found her." "Hn' and then he was gone. When Hermione is about 20 feet in the air, she hears sobbing. About 10 feet later, she sees you on your favorite branch, head in your arms, crying. She climbs oto the branch. "Ariana? Are you ok? He didn't mean it, c'mon please stop crying." 'YOu don't understand Mia. Even though I've told you, you don't understand how much that hurt. It reminded me of the day Kara had first started calling me that, how much it hurt me to see my best friend turn on me, and now it's happening again!' you then begin to sob again. Unbeknown to the two of you, Hie had gone back and gotten the others. They had all heard that and Yusuke felt even worse than he had before, if that was possible. "No it isn't Ari, he isn't turning on you, it was a slip of the tongue, he was messing around, you know that!" 'NO, I don't actually, I thought Kara was messing around at first too, and look at how that turned out. Now where am I supposed to go? I have nowhere to go Mia. An orphanage? That's the only place there is. I can't let one of them adopt me if I have to see someone who ahtes me, I don't want to have to do that again, don't you see?!' "Ariana! He doesn't mean it, I promise you he doesn't. What do you think he would say if he was here?" Hermione tries to console you again. 'He wouldn't be here, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he was on the phone with Kara, seeing how she's doing, get together and think of ways to piss me off.' you mumble, then start to cry again. Hermione having enough of this says "Fine, don't believe me if you don't want, but listen to me, he didn't mean it. Come home when you are ready, but I'm going back to the house ok?" You don't answer, just shake your head. She begins her decent down the tree. When she reaches the bottom, she sees everyone and glares at Yusuke who looks devestated. "Could you hear us?" she asks. Kurama nods his head sadly and she pushes past everyone and walks towards the house. "You had better get your ass up there Yusuke" growls Shizuru, obviouslly pissed off. Yusuke is already climbing the tree as fast as he can. When he reaches your branch, you just continue sobbing, not bothering to look up to see who it was, you hadn't heard them. [Where am I going to go? Not an orphanage. Maybe I can live on the streets, or in a tree. That wouldn't be **so** bad, I guess -] "Ariana" someone saying your name breaks the silence. You look up slowly and see Yusuke looking worried. 'Come to tell me that you're going over to Kara's, so you can plot how to make my life hell once we go back to school?' you ask throught tears. "Wha? NO! Why the heck would I do that?!" 'Oh I dunno, why the heck would you say that to me unless you meant it?!' Yusuke was at a loss for words. 'Why don't you just go to her? She lives at 1245 Harmony drive. Have fun, can't wait to find out the plot for her revenge on Monday.' and with that, you lay your head back into your arms, but don't cry. [I won't let him see me cry, I can't let people who want me to cry, cry] Eventually though, you begin to quietly weep, not knowing he was still there. Yusuke hadn't moved though, just waited for you to stop crying. When twighlight comes around, he gets up to leave. "Just come back to the house once you're ready Ari, but just know, I didn't mean it, and I don't hate you, nor will I ever hate you." With that, he climbs down, you watching with bloodshot eyes. You stay well into the night, and eventually fall asleep.

A few hours after they went back to the house, it was dark and there was no sign of you. Worried, Yuske goes to Hermione. "Hermiione, do you know when she is coming back?" Hermione, shakes her head. "I don't know if she is even coming home at all. She said so, you heard her, but I don't believe you meant what you said, but do you understand **why** she is so upset?" He nods then walks out of the room, down the stars and out the bak door, towards the woods. He is walking throught the woods, back towards the tree that you had been in and almost cries at what he sees. There is a heap on the floor, a dead looking heap. "Ar-Ariana?" he asks. There is no answer. Fearing the worst, he runs over to the heap and rolls it over. He looks into your peaceful face and a single tear falls down his face. (She commited suicide because she thought that I hated her? But I don't get it, she wouldn't do something so stupid) He picks you up carefully and begins to walk slowly back to the house so as not to disturb your soulless body. When he gets back to the house, he walks into the living room and lays you on the couch. He looks at your face again, it looks so peaceful, untroubled. He begins to cry, tears streaming down hi face. He slowly climbs the stairs to the hallways and goes to your old room. The door is open, and Hermione is sitting on her bed, reading a book. She looks up when he walks in. "What's the matter? Did she not forgive you?" "n-no, not th-that." He then points downstairs. she puts the book down, then slides down the railing and runs into the living room. Yusuke follows her slowly. By the time he gets downstais, she has seen you. "Wh-what happened?" she asks shakily. "I dunno, I got to the tree, and-" "WHAT THE HELL?!" yells Kuwabara, who had come in from the kitchen and seen you as well. At this Hermione begins to sob and Kuwa just stares disbelieving the sight before him. Hearing Kuwa's yell, everyone hhad made their way into the living room and seen you . "She didn't forgive you, so you killed her?!" cries Kuwabara. Shizuru, being the last to come downstairs to see the trouble, stops abruptly. (Who is he talking about?! Ariana?!) she thinks, then runs the rest of the way and sinks to her knees once she gets a glimpse. Kurama walks over to you, then feels your wrist. He breathes a sigh of relief. "She isn't dead, she has a pulse." he announces happily. The girls and Shippo stop crying for a moment. "What?" "Yes, she is a live, just unconcious!" He grins, as does everyone else. Botan goes to make tea, and everyone sits down on couches and chairs, waiting for you to wake up. Everyone except Yuske Kuwabara, Hermione and Shizuru, who sit right in front of you. Everyone eventually dozes off, everyone except Yuske, who keeps vigil. At about 3 a.m., your eyes flutter open. 'ungggh' you say, sitting up, then grabbing your ribs in pain. "Are you ok?" asks a voice. You look up and see Yusuke with a concerned look spread over his face. 'And you carewhy exactly?' "I DO CARE! Don't **ever** think I don't ok?" 'Ok, mind telling mewhat happened?' "Actually, I was about to ask you that." 'Well, after you guys left, and it got dark, I guess I fell asleep. The next thing I know, I'm in the living room.' /What really happened: after they all left and you fell asleep, you fell off the branch and landed on your side, the way he found you/

Once everyone had woken up and seen you were alright, they breathed a sigh of relief, then you went and had breakfast. "Hey, I hear there is a circus coming to town in about a month." says Keiko out of the blue. 'That sounds like fun, as long as there aren't any clowns.' "Why? Are you afraid of them Ariana?" 'Actually I am, I hate clowns, always have, always will' "Then we definately have to go!" says Yusuke. You shoot him an angry glare then say 'Ok, fine, but be prepared to see me kick clown butt if any come near me.' /sorry to everyone out there who likes clowns, but I truthfully don't, so don't worry about it/

now for reviews:

**sillyningengirl: **I hope that you and your other half enjoyed this chapter and chapters 2 &3

**tigermage: **I'm glad you enojyed them and i hopew you enjoyed this one too. Good, I'm glad that the situation is under control and I'm glad you feel that way about preps, you are not alone!

**inugurlz:** your welcome, your welcome, your welcome, your welcome, I updated! YOUR WELCOME! lol


	5. Cheryl, Ice Neko Extraodinare

Disclaimer: As you should know by now, I'm not Rumiko Takahashi, Yoshihiro Togashi or JK Rowling, so don't think this is an actual story by any one of them, but a humble fanfiction by the likes of me. Anywayz, Thanks to the reviewers, I appreaciate it.

NOTE:I know updates have been slow, but I hschohrk and stuff, so I'm sorry to my few readers, but this is the fastest d I have. Any time that I have where I'm not watching Inuyasha or YuYu Hakusho or reading Harry Potter for our lovely ideas. When I say our, Im not being schyzo on you.There is a cowriter to this story, so don't give me all the credit please. She isn't on , but please, if you want a good read, go to You won't regret reading it, I promise! Also, feel free to e-mail me at for updates times, more information on the story if you are confused, or if you just want to comment to me about the story, which I will pass on to the cowriter. I really don't mind e-mails, even flames. If you flame me however, my sweet composition might just fade........ Now, quit reading this and go read the story!!!!!!.

/../=author's notes

'..'=Ariana speaking

"..."=everyone else speaking

[...]=Ariana's thoughts

(...)=everyone else's thoughts

...=telepathic convorsation

Hard Knock Life

by Fallenangelscorn

Chapter 5

Cheryl, Ice Neko Extraodinare and SURPRISE!

_"Ariana!" yells Jeff angrily bursting through her bedroom door. You scream in horrorat the look of rage on his face. He grabs your arm and begins slapping and punching you fervently. "How dare you run away?! Did you think I wouldn't have found you?! Your stupid friends will be of no help to you, I killed them all already while they slept." You don't believe your ears. 'NO! Your lying! Kazuma! Shizuru! Yusuke! Somebody! HELP!!!' He punches you in the gut and you double over in pain. He knees you in the face and you feel fresh blood stream down your face. Try as you might, you can't transform into your demon form. Instead, yuo lunge for your katana, but Jeff gets it first. He grabs your arm. "Now, I think it's time to do a little soul extraction, don't you think?" he lunges at you as you stand paralyzed with fear. As the blade comes down over your head, there is a flash of light._

You wake up in a cold sweat. [Thank kami, it was just a dream] you think, getting out of bed. The clock on the wall reads 4:30. You gaze over at the calander. September 20th. [It's my birthday, I'm officially 13] you sigh. Every year on your birthday, Jeff had introduced a new torture device and practiced with it on you. One year stood out quite clearly in your mind.....

**You come through the door, quite happy on your 11th birthday. The teacher had assigned a new book for you all to read, Kara had gotten you a big stuffed teddy bear that you had wanted, and even a card./This was before her birthday, which is in December/. Jeff was sitting on the couch, waiting for you to relize his presence. "Welcome home Ariana." he says rising and walking towards you. From his back pocket, he pulls out a switchblade. You stare wide eyed and find yourself against the wall. He gives you a genuine smile. "You look so happy." suddenly, the smile is replaced by a scowl. "Maybe we should fix that." He suddenly grabs your arms and slits your wrists, sideways, so you won't die. He drops the blade next to your hand, then runs out of the room. Seconds later you hear him on the phone. "Yes, 911? My daughter, she tried to commit suicide! We need an ambulance right away! Yes, yes, thank you!" 20 minutes later, an ambulance arrived and you were taken to the hospital, and they told Jeff to get you therapy. You were out of school for a week, and Kara came to visit you everyda**

**y. Jeff however, didn't show his face until the day you went home thankfully.**

Just remembering things like that made you want to cry, but you hold strong, for the sake of everyone, including yourself. You go into the bathroom and take a shower. Then you get dressed in black pants with a green plaid, zip-up opening; plusa v-neck, forest green top with a leaf in the middle a shade darker. Next you brush your hair and put it half-up. Yawning, you stumble downstairs and into the library, knowing full well that nobody is awake. You go over to the shelf and pick off a book /whatever you want/, and smoosh into the armchair in the living room, then start to read. You get involved in what you are reading, and don't notice time go by. "Ariana? What are you doing awake?!" you look up at a surprised Miroku. 'Um, I'm reading...' "Yes, I can see that, but what I meant was, unless you are making breakfast, you don't rise until well after sunrise, and well, today isn't your day to cook." 'Oh, I just woke up early is all.' He looks skeptical. "Are you sure, because you look troubled. Does your room perhaps need to be excerized?" You burst out laughing. 'I'm young, but I'm not stupid! I know you're just trying to get into Sango's room, I can also see quite well and I know you like her.' "Nani?! No! That's not it at all!" he says, byu can see the tinge on his cheeks. 'Yeah, sure, whatever. But me and my room are fine thanks.' He looks disappointed,but you just reabsorb yourself into your book. He goes into the kitchen, re-emerging with two apples. He tosses you one and you absentmindedly reach up and catch it. 'Thanks' you murmur, closing the book. "So Ariana, mind telling me why you are realy awake this early?" 'Well, it doesn't really matter, just a silly bad dream is all.' "Actuall it might be more. I mea, let's face it, you are telepathic, so you could be phsycic. Maybe the dream was a vision." The thought of the drem being real blurries your eyes, but you brush the tears away quickly. "What was your dream about. I haven't seen you cry before, so it must be pretty bad huh?" 'Might I ask why you are being so nice to me all of a sudden?' "Can't a guy be nice to a little girl?" You are fed up with this title. 'I am not a little girl! I am 13 years old!You are only 6 years older than I am ok?!' He looks taken aback at first, then confused. "Huh? I thoughtt you were 12 Ariana..." Your eyes go wide and you realize what you had just let out. "When did you turn 13? Why didn't you tell anyone? Not even Hermione?" you look down 'I didn't want anyone to know, because I hate my birthday, so drop it ok?' "Ok, but first tell me when was your birthday?" 'Today is my birthday, I just urned 13 at 4:00. NOW can we drop it?' "Sure, but, happy birthday" and with that, he rose up and walked out of the room. [Great, now he's gonna tell everyone, that's just great. Why re birthdays such a big deal anyway? Imean. all it is is another year of your life passing by.....] You hear footsteps coming down the hall. Hiei walks in a few minutes later, with something behind his back. 'What's that?' you ask, motioning to the object. He just walks up to you, drops something into your lap, then goes and sis in the window sill. 'But, how did you? Where did you? Oh I'm going to kill Miroku!!!!!!!!!' "Relax onna! Jeez, I read your mind during the katana training, when you wished you had you own katana. Now, despite attempts to see into your memory, I can't find any birthday memories, care to enlighten me on why that is?" 'No, actually, I really don't.' "That's fine. I guess I'll just have to moniter your dreams, get the facts." 'AH! NO! I'll tell you,just leave my subconcious out of this!' So you tell him about Jeff's happy birthday for you every year. At the end of it, his face is still indifferent. "Well, that gives me my answer. When I see this guy, it's official, he won't be living to try and get any more souls." You smile a bit. 'And why are you going to do that might I ask?' "Because, I may be cruel, but I've never, and will never, beat someone daily just to get a bit more power. Nobody should do that for any reason. Now would you open the damn thing already?" You grin then say 'Ok, if yo say so!' and take off thepaper carefully. You open the long slender white box and your eyes go wide. There, in the box, sat a katana, sheath and all. The sheath is a dark purple, almost black, but had a brilliant streak of red through it. The handle of the katana was a lighter shade of purple, but still dark. On the end, there sits a sapphire, gleaming nicely in the light of the lamp. You unsheath it and observe the craftsmenship. The blade itself was smooth, with the symbol of fire towards the hilt, and a small ruby like stone there. You carefully place it down, then jump up and give him a big hug. 'Thank you! I don't know what to say but thank you!' "Now you can actually fight me with a sword and have the cuts be swift and sharp, not that cheap ratty old one of Koenma's." You smile, hten thank him again. 'I'll be right back' you say, then take the sheathed katana up to your room, where Hermione is still sound asleep, open your weapon closet, and place it in the first holster for a katana. Then you head back downstairs and see that Mroku had come abck into the livingroom, and Inuyasha and Kurama had joinedthem. 'Good morning' you say, then go back to your chair. They stare at your happy expression balankly. You had been a bit depressed the past few days because of your birthday, and all of a sudden, you were jovial again. "Somebody had an attitude adjustment. Hiei, maybe you should consider that." says Inuyasha smugly. "Yeah, and maybe you should try being less ugly and half-witted, all braun and no brains isn't gonna attract that girl of yours." replies Hiei smirking, though nobody could see his face sense he had his head down. "Are you looking for a fight pyro boy?" asks Inuyasha angrily. 'HEY! Cut it out! Can't you two get along for once?! You two are worse than you-Hiei and my brother! Just cut it out for one day ok?!' "And why is that little girl?" asks Inuyasha. 'That's IT!!!!! How many times have I told you I am NOT A LITTLE GIRL?!?!?!?!?!?! I haven't been a little girl for a VERY long time, so stop judging me by my age! And if you call me a little girl again, there will be hell to pay!' with that, you stormed out of the room. Behind you, you hear Inuyasha say, "Well, she definately isn't a little girl, look at that mood swing." This got laughs from nobody, but a swift burn in the butt from you. 'I heard that hanyou' you call over your shoulder, walking up the stairs, towards your room. You lay down on your bed and stare at the ceiling. Recently, you had stuck pictures of everyone above your bed, in a clooage sort of thing. Hermione had helped you, since the ceiling was ten feet off the ground, but you had chosen the places. Now, you look at the picture of everyone all smiling. You had all gone to the mall, getting an assortment of things, but mostly just hanging out in the arcade and stuff. You all had fresh ice cream cones, except for Hiei, who's ice cream was gone already. You giggle at the picture, causing Hermione to stir and wake up. "Oh, g'mornin Ari" 'GOOD MORNING MIA' You yell, waking her up fully. "Thanks" she says, yawning again. 'No prolem.' you then get up and walk back into the living room. When you walk in, you bust out laughing. Inuyasha sat on a bag of ice,scowling. "She does have a point though Inuyasha, she isn't a little girl." Kurama says, obviously not noticing you were there or hearing your laugh. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's a 12 year old child. Just because she is more mature than a kid doesn't mean that she isn't more than a mear child." he replies. "Your just sore because she burned you. And she isn't 12, she's 13, so she isn't a child, she's a teenager now like the rest of us, whether you like it or not." [MIROKU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] your head screams. You said you wouldn't tell! you yell at him I'm sorry, but I was defending you, It isnt a big deal, they would find out some time, you know that very well Yeah, I guess I do You walk up to the little group. 'See, I told you I'm not a little girl.' "But when? How come we didn't know and Miroku did?" asks Kurama, a bit hurt. 'Well actually, Hiei knows too. He read my mind, and this morning I let slip I ws 13, and now you two know and that's it. I don't like my birthday, so just keep it under wraps ok?' "But why not?" asks Kurama. 'Hiei will tell you.' you say then get up and go outside.

with the boys

"Well, why didn't the twerp tell us?" asks Inuyasha angrily. (at least he didnt say kid) thinks Kurama. "Well, maybe it's because she had a bad past you baka. You don't reveal anything about your past, so why should she be a different case?" growls Hiei. "Hmph, sounds like you actallly acre about the twerp, why is that may I ask?" sneers Inuyasha. "Because. When I knew about Yukina, I didn't do my job as a brother as I should have. The 'twerp' as you refer to her, is what I used to want Yukina to be, so it's like she is a sister I never had, and as you know, I protect my family, so shut up." Inuyasha looks flabbergasted, and Kurama has a satisfies smirk on his face. "Now that we have that settled. Why doesn't she like her birthday?" asks Miroku. "She hates her birthday so much because the jerk who she lived with used that as torture device expiamentation day on a human subject. Guess who the human subject was." Inuyasha, who had been muttering about how stupid and immature you were stops abruptly, his eyes going wide. "Now we have a question for you Inuyasha." says Miroku. "Yes, we do. Why is it you hate Ariana so? Has she done something to you?" asks Kurama. "Or is your foolish pride getting in your way because she's a full demon and you are not?" finishes Hiei. Inuyasha angrily looks down, but says nothing. "Well, if thats the case, shouldn't you despise Hiei, myself and Shippo?" asks Kurama. "It isn't because she is a demon. I dislike her because she is so sure of herself, yet so scared of everyone. She can act so happy, but be so miserable inside, and not let anyone know. I dislike her because if I grow to like her, I'll be fooled by her stupid impressions as the rest of you are. If I grow to like her, nobody will be able to tell if she is in danger or not, because she won't show it. Do you understand now?" They nod in understanding, slightly shocked that Inuyasha could be that...well...deep.

with you

When you went outside, you strolled right past the training area, where they susected you were gooing, and went to find a new tree. [Why must everyone pry and pry? Can't they just accept I don't like something and leave it at that?! Or they could just be a bit more mellow. Whoopdedoo, it's my birthday! Let's all celebrate!!!! Ugh, it's really disgusting. And then this whole Yusuke thing. One minute I'm his friend, the next he's using quotes from Kara, and then he was worried when I hurt myself? Can't he just choose which he prefers, because I would like to know whether I'm welcome here anymore or not. Oh well, guess I'd better head back or they'll freak out again.] As you walk back a song plays itself in your head.

_Crowded strrets all cleared away, one by one_

_hollow heroes seperate, as they run_

_your so cold, keep your hand in mine_

_wise men wonder while_

_starved men die_

_Show me how we end this alright_

_show me how defenseless you really are_

_satisfy an empty inside_

_that's alright, let's give this another try_

_If you find your family, don't you cry_

_in this land of make-believe, dead and dry_

_Your so cold, but you feel alive_

_lay your hands on me one last time_

_Show me how we end this alright_

_show me how defenseless you really are_

_sarisfy an empty inside_

_that's alright, let's give this another try_

_Show me how we end this alright_

_show me how defenseless you really are_

_satisfy an empty inside_

_that's alright let's give this another try_

_it's alright_

_it's alright_

_it's alright_

_it's alrgiht_

_it's alright_

_it's alright_

_it's alright_

_it's alright_

_it's alright_

Once it finishes, you find yourself out in front of the back door. You open it and go into the living room, gazing upon the faces plastered to yours. 'What?' you ask. They automatically seem to find a patch of carpet quite interesting. 'I'll be upstairs.' you state, then turn and move to go up the stairs. "No! Wait a second!" yells Inuyasha after you. 'And why should I wait for you hanyou.' you say icily, then turn on your heel and storm up the stairs. "I think we pressed too many buttons." says Miroku. "Ya think!" yells Inuyasha, then gets up and bounds up the stairs as well. "What the hell just happened, because unless iI'm insane, Inuyasha just went to get Ariana."Miroku says uncertainly. "NO you're not insane, but I think HE is." points out Kurama.

You went to your room and slammed the door shut. Within a few seconds, there was a knock at the door. We=hen you don't respond, there is banging on the door. "Let me in you spoiled brat! Get your butt out here NOW!!!!!!" Glaring daggers, you opne the door. 'To what do I owe the honor Inuyasha? Come to insult me? Or did you come to be burnt again?' "Listen brat face. I don't care how old you are, you need to lighten up. I'm sick of you acting high and mighty over everyone else, so shape up, get over your damn past, forgive Yusuke and enjoy your birthday! Be a normal kid for once in your life!" and with that, he stomped back down the stairs. You slowly shut the door, letting his words sink in. [Am I really a spoiled brat? Or am I just letting myself be tricked by him? Or was he messing around? I mean, come on! How can I be a normal kid? What normal kid can make fox ears pop out of her head, or have a fireball shoot out of her palm?! Because I'd love to meet her! And how can I get over my past when it hangs over my head like a wet blaknket?Well, I'm going to suck it inside. Just because I'm unhappy doesn't mean I should bring everyone else down I guess. Time to 'enjoy' the day I guess.] Keeping that in mind you float downstairs, putting on a happy face, walking into the living room and sit down in your chair. 'So, where is everyone might I ask?' you say sweetly. Just then, Hermione, Keiko and Shizuru walk in. "Well, I see Inuyasha managed to cheer you up!" says Keiko, "I wa shoping we could go to that circus I told you guys about a while ago. Today is the last day." she suggests. 'Well, that sounds good to me, not like there is anything else going on today.' "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea babe." says Yusuke, walking downstairs. 'Wrll, I'll gather the votes and we'll decide from that!' you say, getting up."Ok, you do that!" Keiko says happily. So you go around collecting votes. The only 'no's were from Inuyasha and Hiei, but majority won. So everyone piled into cars and off they went.....................

At the circus

"Ok, who has money left from after their ticket?" asks Yusuke. Keiko, Hermione, Harry, Kagome and you raise your hands. "Well, there's lunch folks!" he states, then walks over to you. He motions his head to the back of the group, so they can't hear. "Listen. I know that you don't want to forgive me for what I said. But I promise I'll make it up to you. You really are my friend, more like my sister, so I care ok? Don't ever think I don't. Even if it takes forever, just remember, I WILL make it up to you." then he turns and walks back to Keiko. [Does he really mean it?] you think {or is he just acting to get on my good side again? Hmmmm. He is so much like a brother to me, but he will need to prove what he said before I can fully forgive him.] "Ari?" you hear Hermione calling you. 'Yep?' "The show is starting, c'mon!" she tugs your hand, pulling you into a chair in between her and Keiko. Yusuke and Ron on either side of them. Then the lights dim and a spotlight goes to the center ring, where a man in a corny red ringmaster outift stands. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Ringling Brother's circus! Now, let's just dive right in. For our first act, we have an amazingly brave girl. Her birthday is today, so let's all wish her a happy birthday when she gets out here!" Just then, a short girl with elegant light brown hair faling over her shoulders walked into the center ring. "And here she is! Everyone wish Cheryl a VERY happy 16th birthday!" "HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERYL!" yells the crowd and she beams, a bit embarrased obviously. You look over and see Miroku and Kurama staring wide eyed at you. You stare back, confused. "now folks. The birthday girl will be performing an acrobatic performance like no other. Be prepared to be amzed, intirgued, shocked out of your mind and much more! So sit back and watch the bendy antics of Cheryl Tatsumaki!" A round of apllause erupted through the stadium as she climbed up a high ladder to the bars. Once she stood on the platform, she grabbed a bar, took a deep breath, then pushed off the platform. Halfway across the arena, she flipped onto her stomach andlet go of the bar. She grabbed onto the next bar and layed down coompletely. The crowd gasped as she swung to and fro. She slid off the first bar, holding onm to the next bar with only an elbow. She swung her leg over, now stradling the bar, wrapping her legs around it before swinging upside down. Now she let go of the bar completely, freefalling towards the ground. Everyone drew in their breath, waiting for the impact. But just before she could touch, she floated, catching herself. She was laying down, floating upwards as the group oohed in shock. You quirk an eyebrow at this. [There is no way in hell she is hooked to a wire.] You glance over at Hiei, who appears to be thinking the same thing. Demon? you asl him. demon he responds curtly, before turning attention back to the girl. You do the same, just in time to see her land gracefully on the ground. There is a burst of apllause, but then, she grabs a microphone and they all silence. "now," she says, in a kind voice,"We will be choosing a chair number. Whoever's chair that is, will bring however many people they desire to meet me backstage!" The crowd cheers. "The number everyone, is B56. Whomever's seat that is, please stand up." Everyone checks their seats, coming up disappointed. For the hell of it, you peek at your chair and your eyes bulge. B56. Slowly, you stand up. A spotlight shines into your eyes. "Congratulations! After the show, meet me at my trailer and bring your friends!" then she hands the mike back over and walks off stage, with another round of applause. The rest of the show is same old, same old. You make everyonelaugh at one point when you scream when a clown hands you a balloon. You glared a glare to end all glares at them and they shut up . After the show, Keiko is bouncing up and down. "Let's go meet that girl now!" she exclaims. 'Chill Keiko, we're going.' you laugh and then walk out of the tent, blinded by the sunlight. Once your eyes adjust, you go over to the trailers and find hers. You knock and she opens the door, dressed in a black tanktop and some faded jeans. "So, you're the lucky winner, huh?" she asks. You nod and she invites you all in. The minutes you step in, inuyasha freezes. "Not to sound rude or anything, um, lady, but your trailer reaks of DEMON!" She smiles. "I'm guessing you are a dog demon, since you reconized the scent and you are wearing a bulgy hat." He blushes. Then she walks over to him and plucks off the hat, revealing two fuzzy grey ears. "That's what I thought. That is why I picked you guys. On the count of three, demon forms, now. One...two...three." On three, she turned rigid and a light blue light went around her and out she stepped, with white ears and a tail, sky blue hair, and even lighter eyes. "What? I thought I said demon forms..." she says confused. 'You did, but I didn't think you were serious. You can't trust us that easily already.' "Of course I don't, but if you are threats to me, it'll make it more challenging to kill you all."she states simply. 'O' you state, then concentrate and your body isalso engulfed, transforming you into your demon form as well. "Holy...." says Kuwa, unable to finish his statement. "You two are total opposites!" exclaims Yukina. Confused, you gaze into the mirror and gasp. She was right. "Wow. Hey, how old are you anyways?" Cheryl asks. 'Oh, I'm thirteen.' you answer. "Really? When is your birthday?" 'Well, um, actually, it's today.' you answer, then here the gasps from behind you. "So that means, you are 14, doesn't it?" 'No, I just turned 13.' "What kind of demon are you?" she asks suddenly. 'Oh I thought it was obvious. I'm a kitsune, see?' you say, grabbing an ear. "Right. This is too freaky." 'No, not really, just means, we are polar opposites and have the same birthday.' you say. "no, you are my sister." she says amazed, 'No, we aren't, we don't even look alike. Are you insane? Besides, those are my siblings right there.' you say, pointing to Kuwa and Shizuru. "Really? Then why don't they have a demon form?" 'Well, they aren't demons, only I am. I'm a reincarnation.' you reply simply. "Exactly! I am a reincarnation as well. My father said that in my past life, I had a sister who was a fire kitsune. And here you standing before my very eyes." she sounds utterly mistified. 'Um, how is it, that you know about this and I've never heard anything about it?' "I dunno. Hasn't your father told you?" she asks. 'No, I never knew my father.' you say irritably. "Oh, I'm sorry." she sympathetically puts here hand on your shoulder, but you shrug it off. 'Excuse me' you say, then transfrom back into your human self. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, can you accompany us somewhere?" asks Yusuke, atking a step towards her. "Un yeah, sure. I'm done here today anyways." she says, then transforms back into her human self as well. You go to Kurama's car, blindfold her, then drive home. you take her to Koenma's office and unblindfold her. "Cheryl?!" cries Koenma. "Hello!" she says cheerfully, taking a seat in front of his desk. 'Um, do you know each other?' you ask, confused. "Yes, I am a friend of her father. She found out about herself because of me." he says proudly. 'Well, taht's fine and dandy, but why didn't you tell me I had another sister?!' "oh, heheheh, slipped my mind?" he says, sweatdropping. You shake your head and then turn around to face everyone else. Your eyes narrow. Every boy in the room is staring fixedly on Cheryl, practically drooling /yes I said every, no exceptions other than Koenma/. You sigh. BOYS. You then smirk and walk behind them, burning them each in the butt. They yelp, then turn and glare at you. You just shrug and smile. Then Cheryl notices them. "Oh, are you boys ok?" she asks. They just shake their head slowly, stars gleaming in their eyes and Keiko, Hermione, Sango and Kagome grab Yusuke, Ron, Miroku and Inuyasha by their ears and step out of the room. Minutes later, loud yelps and crashing can be heard. They return a few minutes later, the boys with rather large bumps on their head and frowns on their faces. You smirk at this, then turn back to Koenma, to find he isn't there. grumbling you say 'Get out here! Where is she going to stay?!' He then comes out from behind George with raised eyebrows. "Oh, she already has a room." he says, "Now get out of my office!." You raise an eyebrow at her and she grins. "My room is in the girl's hallway..." she says, like it was as obvious as day. 'Where? All of the rroms in that hall are occupied.' "Oh, it's here, I'll show you, but only you, since you're my sister." She then gets up and walks out of the room. You stare at everyone blankly, then follow her. You both walk up the stairs and into the hallway. She then walks right past the other rooms, to the wall at the end. On this wall was a mosaic of a rain forest. She presses on the bright orange pirhana in the dead center of it and the whole thing slides over. Your eyes widen at the sight before you. A room even bigger than your own sits there. In the center of the room is a light blue bed. The walls are blue with long white wisps along them, and the carpet is a light shade of green. She has a coputer on a wooden desk, and a large bookcase, similar to your own. In a nook to the far north of the room, is a wooden stage. On the stage, sits a stereo, a microphone and a cd rack, filled with cds, and even more on the floor next to it. You frown a bit at the posters on the wall. They are all of rap and hiphop artists. 'Well, you'll fit right in with yusuke and my brother Cheryl.' "Really? Why? Won't we be friends?" 'Oh, yeah, of course! but hiei, Hermione and I like alternative rock. Yusuke and Kazuka however, LOVE rap and hiphop. But I wouldn't get to friendly with Yusuke, because keiko will bite his, or your, head off.' She smiles. "So, Hiei is that little short gothic kid?" 'Oh, he isn't a kid, he's really old. He's just short. He's a fire demon. But none of us know how old he is for a fact, not even Kurama, and he's hiei's best friend.' "Well that stinks, when do you celebrate his brithday?" 'We don't actually. We don't celebrate mine either, but that's only because they didn't know my birthday was today until you asked.' "Well, why didn't you tell them?" 'Because they didn't ask. Besides, I hate my brithday anyways.' "Why do you hate your birthday?! It's the best day of the year, other than Christmas!" 'Oh, I'm Jewish. Well, I don't know if I really am Jewish, but Jeff was Jewish, so I always considered myself Jewish as well.' "Oh, ok, so you celebrate Hannukah. Who's Jeff?" "I'll tell you later.' "Sure, now could you tell me about everyone, so I don't screw up when we go back there?" You giggle. 'Yeah, of course. But I think it'll be harder for you to know which is which because guys seem to all look the same when they are gawking.' She blushes at this. "They weren't gawking!" 'Yes, they were. Sorry to say so, but they think you're...well...hot, I guess.' She turns even redder than before. "I mean, come ON! Nobody thinks I'm hot! There is no way that you are right!" 'Fine. Don't believe me...sis. But one thing you'll learn about me, is I don't lie. Ever. When you find out about my past, then you'll know. Ask anyone here.' you say this very flatly, and it shocks her a bit. "I'm sorry! Did I offend you? It's just that, you know, nobody has ever thought I was pretty before and now all of them? It just doesn't seem possible is all." 'It's ok Cheryl, you didn't know. But how do you know that nobody has ever thought you pretty? Just because a person doesn't say something, it doesn't mean that it's not true. Most times people are too afraid to even dare dream about saying what they feel inside, or sometimes, they aren't afraid to say it, just the reaction that they'll get once it's said.' "Wow. You know, that was deep. How do you think up this stuff Ariana? In a thousand years, I couldn't have come up with something so beautiful, for such an easy explanation. I'm really lucky. And you know what else?" 'What?' "Well, I'm glad i'm only related to you, because then there would be problems." You wrinkle your brow in confusion. "Oh, I mean, with.. Kazuka? I think you called him? Because that would be really sick and wrong." You laugh at this. 'His name isn't Kazuka. His name is Kazuma, but everyone calls him Kuwabara except me and Shizuru, my sister, because that's our last name. I just call him Kazuka because he hates it!' She smiles. "Now, tell me about these people so I can get accustomed to them. I already know Botan, I've known her for a long time. But I'd like to know about the rest of them, so I don't screw up like I did with you." 'Sure, that's no problem, but how will you explain this to the ringleader at the circus?' "Oh! He's my dad! Whenever I leave, he knows I'm here, it's like an understanding we have." 'That's cool! I wish my dad had been like that, well, my foster dad anyways.' "Hm? Will you tell me about your past after you tell me about the other people?" 'Sure! It's not a problem, but don't expect it to take a short while.' "That's not a problem for me either." 'Good. Just let me tell hiei really fast so he can tell the others we'll be here a while.' Hiei. what child? jeez! Have a cow, I was just going to tell you that me and Cheryl are going to be here a while, so if you could tell everyone that so they don't worry, that'd be great. sure, now get out of my head and tell that girl about us and tell her not to refer to me as little again or I'll decapitate her. YOU WERE LISTENING TO OUR CONVERSATION YOU ASS?! Yeah, I needed to know where herroom is in case of emergency Oh whatever 'It's taken care of!' you say brightly. "Really? What was wrong? From the look on your face you looked a bit mad." 'Oh, it was nothing, just Hiei being Hiei.' "So, what is Hie being Hiei exactly?" 'Well, it's like this. Hiei hasn't exactly had a great life. he was basically thrown out as a kid, then he was raised by thieves, and so he became one himself. When Yusuke beat him, was when he left the dark side. He still isn't exactly that nice of a person, but once you get on his good side, IF you get on his good side, he is probably one of the most loyal friends you could possibly have. Kurama is his best friend. In the ningen world, he goes by Shuichi. But that's a whole other story. Kurama is really nice, almost the exact opposite of hiei, but yusuke met kurama the same way he met hiei. they were working with this soul eating dude-' "Goki?" asks Cheryl. 'Yeah, how'd you know?' "Oh, my father is an attourney for Spirit World, he handled his case, in fact, I think he handled hiei's and kurama's as well." 'Yeah, anyways, Kurama wasn't evil in the first place, youko however, was a theif to begin with, so that doesn't help. But he took a sword in the gut for yusuke, then got beaten up by some rock demon from the Four Beasts.' "Wow, who knew Kurama had such a past?" 'Oh. But it gets better. He was with Hiei and Goki because he was trying to save his mother with the mirror of darkness.' "No way! He was going to commit suicide for his mother?!" 'Yep. Now, Yusuke, Yusuke died. But Koenma made this whole golden egg deal with him and out of the egg popped Puu. But the way Yusuke died kills me. He used to be this badass punk, getting into fights and stuuf, smoking, drinking, just all sorts of bad stuff. Well one day he went home, his mom pissed him off so he went for a walk. He sees a kid walking in the street with a ball, so, he warns the kid and everything, but the kid doesn't listen. So, of course, the ball goes into the middle of the road and a car is gliding down the road at the same time and the kid runs to egt it and yusuke jumps in the way of the car, pushing the kid out of the way.' Cheryl's eyes are wide in shock. "Yusuke was bad? He is so nice though, so far anyways." 'Yeah, but he an be a butt head at times. now, my brother was a punk, just like yusuke, butthey were worst enemies. Yusuke, however, beat his ass all the time, because my brother is...um...well..not all that strong, I guess I should say, but he's strong enought that most humans wouldn't mess with him. Well when Yusuke came back to life, he went to this cafe place and these guys were there, talking about Kazuka and he walked in with his lackies, looking timid, which is a pretty rare thing, and supposedly, from what I've heard, he was supposed to steal some manga, but he bought it, and they had our cat, Eikichi, so he was in their hands. yusuke ended up saving Eikichi and then after the whole thing with Genkai, which you know about, they became friends, best friends.' "Jeez, they all have such a history." 'Yeah, all of us do really. Now, with inuyasha, I don't really know too much abouthim, but from what I've heard, he was in loe with this girl Kikyo and he was going to use the Shikon no Tama to become human, but this ass Naraku tricked them into hating each other. She bound him to a tree with an arrow, because she was a priestess and well, that's all I know really, other than the fact that he can be more irritable than Hiei sometimes. Kagome is Kikyo's reincarnation. She is from our time, but she lives on her family shrine and none day, this centipede demon dragged her to the fuedal era. She met Inuyasha, then, she accidentally shattered the Shikon jewel, and hey had to find the pieces before Naraku did, and that's how they met the rest of them, she is really really nice,a bit too nice, but when you make her mad, BACK AWWAY. Myoga is Inuyasha's vassal, since his father was a demon lord, I don't really know much about him. Shippo was hanging with a bad crowd, and when Inuyasha killed them, they took Shippo with them, he's a sweet little kid. Miroku's a monk. There is no other way to say this, he's a lecher, a BIG TIME lecher I don't know how Sango puts up with him sometimes. He is pretty nice however, but he can be really serious when he needs to be. Sango is the saddest case by far. She was a demon exterminator, as was her whole family. Well, one night, her brother, Kohaku's, first slaying, a spider demon possesed him and he killed everyone except Sango, but he almost killed her. At the same time, their village was attacked by a hoard of demons, since their best slayers were away, and the whole vilage was slaughtered. Sango wanted revenge for her village and Naraku showed up and said Inuyasha did it, so she tried attacking him. She found out the truth however, and joined them on their quest to fight Naraku, but that isn't thesaddest part. The village they were slaying in killed Kohaku because they thought he was crazy, but Naraku ut a jewel shard in his back, so Kohaku became a minion, but Sango is really nice, and she's funny too.' "That's terrible! That beast!" 'Yeah, I know. Now, the only other person who really has a history is Harry. his parents were killed by this guy named Voldemort, and he almost was killed too, but instead, he brought Voldemort out of power and got some powers as well, just not demonic. They are wizards. Harry had to go live with these humans who treated him very poorly. But at Hogwarts, the schoool they go to, he had to face the guy four more times, but in their fourth year, Voldemort came back from the shadows. But nobody believed him. He's a genuinely nice person though, as are Ron, Neville, Ginny and Luna. Hermione though. Hermione is like me. She can be your best friend, but she can be your worst enemy too. She's really nice, but she can be a witch, well she is a witch, but you know what I mean.' "Jeez, your friends are pretty weird. What about the girls?" 'Well Keiko is a perfect schoolgirl basically, she does't break rules, at all, but she is nice, very nice, but she cn be mean and from what I've heard, she slaps pretty hard. Shizuru doesn't take crap, but she is nice enough when she needs to be. Yukina is very nice. She doesn't argue often, so when she does, it's best to listen. She is also an ice demon and little known to most people, something you CAN'T tell anyone, she is Hei's sister. She doesn't even know, which is why it's a secret. Well it used to be anyways. She already knows I think.' "Thanks,I'll be able to talk right with them now." 'That's good, now I''ll tell you about my past quickly so we can go downstairs' You tell her all that you ad told the rest of them and her eyes are narrowed by the end of it, you including what yusuke did to you. "What a jerk! And he's your friends?! Come on, let's go downstairs, we've been up here a long while." 'Ok.'So the two of you run back down the stairs, only to find a pitch black house. 'HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO' you call. Suddenly, the lights flicker o. "SURPRISE!!!!" everyone cries out. Your eyes go wide at the display. A cake, presents, the whole birthday thing. It brings tears to your eyes. "Ari, are you ok?" asks Hermione. 'Yeah, fine, I just, well I've never **had** a brithday and I don't know what to say or do.' At this Cheryl stops dead in her tracks, whipping around to face you. "You've never had a birthday?!" 'How could you expect me to with Jeff and all? I wasn't allowed to go to my best friend's party, and then I would have been out of the house, so what makes you think he'd spend money on something that wasn't neccessary to keep me alive?' At this, she nods understandingly, then walks over to Yusuke. He goes starry eyes at her /Keiko isn't looking/. She stares at him a inute then slaps him and walks over towards Kurama. yusuke rubs his cheek and looks at you. You just slightly glare at him and he realizes that Cheryl knows about what he did. (I still can't believe I did that to her. I don't think she'll ever forgive me, ever. But I have to make her see I didn't mean it, this can't last forever, can it?) he thinks, watching you sit alone in a dark corner, hands around your knees, head in your arms. "Ari?" You look up at Yusuke. 'Yes?" "Why are you just sitting here, this is your birthday party!" 'Yeah? What's your point?" "Well, for one thing, you're supposed to enjoy it." 'Well I really can't do that. If anyone asks, tell them I'm in the bathroom or something.' With that, you get up and start to sneak out of the room. He just stares after you sadly watching you go.

You stalk outof the back door towards the forest, not looking back. Once you are into the forest, you break into a run.You keep running, ignoring the plees of your lungs you run until you can barely stand. Then you climb a tree to see how far away you are. At the top, you see that you're a good 4 miles from home, since the masion is barely even a spec of dust. "You know, you need to learn to sneak away better." Your head snaps up at the noise. "You really do, I could even sense you moving away." 'Cheryl? What happenede to you? You seem so serious, what happened to back inside?' "Oh! That. I'm a spirit detective, but of higher ranking. I wanted to know about everyone to see if they could really be trusted with you. I already knew about all of them. The whole ditsy thing was just a rouse to trick everyone else until I thought it was safe to reveal myself." 'So, you knew about me? Everything was a lie?' "oh, no! I knew actually next to nothing about you. And it wasn't a lie, mearly a disguise, if you will, because would you have trusted me with information if you had known the circomstances?" 'Guess you're right. So, we are really sisters? And you are really my firend?' "Double yes." You smile. "And by the way, I'm a telepath also, so I'd not have any private convorsations telepathically, because hiei or I ould intercept it." 'Actually, you couldn't, because I learned a new trick. try and read my mind.' Cheryl looks at you then a look of pain crosses her smooth features. "Wow, you learned to mind block already, good job, took me ages to learn to do that!" 'Now, I have a question for you.' you say boldly. "And what would that be?" 'Well, do you like one of the guys? If so, who?' "Well the answer is plain as day. Yes and none of your damn business." She smiles while she says it, so you know she isn't really mad. 'Seriously. Who?!' "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." 'Well, I'll believe anything as long as it isn't my brother.' Disgust is all you see in her face. "Not in a milllion years. It's...it's...IT'S HIEI!" Your eyes widen for a second time that day. 'Fire boy?! You like Hiei?!' "You said you'd believe it!" she says desperately. "I..I do, it's just, no offense, but you don't stand a chance, he isn't really an emotional guy, you should know that.' "Yeah i do, but who says his heart doesn't have room for two people rather than just Yukina?" 'I guess you're right.' Back at the house Everyone stared at Hiei. He had just spilt an entire glass of puch on himself, but not moved an inch to do anything about it. He had been listening to the convorsation through Cheryl and had heard what she said. (She likes me?! Why me? Why not the fox? Pyro doesn't think I'm suitable, which is understandable. But room in my heart for just one more other than Yukina? What about Pyro? Oh yeah, nobody knows I care about her either. Wait, since when is the fox girl Pyro? It does have a nice ring to it though. I mean, I like Cheryl, she's very pretty, and she's smart too, she fooled everyone with that act of hers. Hm, maybe I should give her a chance...) "HIEI! MAN, C'MON!" He snaps out of the trance he was in and stares up at Kuwa. "Get ouut of my face baka." He then stands and goes out the back door, towards the center of the forest.

The next few chapters will be extremely short, but they are fillers for up to chapter 9. I'm sorry for the inconviniences, but they are crutial to the story. They are mostly from the villains' point of view. You probably could guess the villains already, but hey, maybe you'll be surprised. Sorry, no shout outs today, can't access my e-mail.


	6. Jeff's Old Friends

Disclaimer: Once again, I'm not Rumiko Takahashi, nor am I Yoshihiro Togashi or J.K. Rowling, so get used to it!

summary: Ariana Carter, a 13 year old punk has had a shock. Another sibling, from her past life. Everything is going great, but what about Jeff? What happened to him once Ariana left? Well, you're about to find out.

rated: PG-13 for violence, mild language and detailed violence.

/.../= author's notes

'...'=Ariana speaking

"..."=everyone else speaking

[...]=Ariana's thoughts

(...)=everyone else's thoughts

Chapter 6

Jeff's Old Friends

Jeff walked down the bleek hallway towards the gray metal door at the end. Once he reached the door, he slid it open. "Oh, hello Unasareru." says a cold voice. "You seem surprised to see me Tom." he answers. "Ah, but you know full well, that **Tom** is not my name." he says. "Yes, yes, Voldemort was it?"

"That's right." he says, narrowing his eyes.

"So hostile, where are they?" Jeff asks

"They're on their way. How could you expect them to be early? Were they ever?"

"You have a point there buddy."

"We have arrived." sqays a new voice.

"Onigumo, welcome." says Voldemort

"Naraku you fool." he growls

"Would you care to be incinerated?"

"Now, now, I, Sesshomaru, will stop this mess. You both changed your names, so we might have trouble getting names right, so get over it."

"Good point. Now on to why I asked you three here. You all remember the brat that I stole who was the reincarnation of Ashton correct?" They all nod. "Well, she found out her origins and joined up with those lousy spirit detectives, your brother Sesshomaru and that bratty wizard you're after... Voldemort."All of their eyes start to twitch. "Exactly. We need to stop them, once and for all. The wizards are weak, especially that one, who's godfather died last year. If we take something the girl loves, she will be very weak. But if we take the Kagome girl, Inuyasha will just be enraged. The girl might be as well, I'm not sure. Anger can be power, we know this. So how are we going to weaken their defenses?" Jeff's speech was said in a cold, monotone voice. Sesshomaru looks thoughtful, but Naraku and Voldemort have narrow eyes and scowls. Jeff, however, looks ready to wring your throught /Ariana/.


	7. Kanna's Bright Idea

Disclaimer: I'm not even going to bother. You know who I am, and who I'm not

Time for another shorty.

Chapter 7

Kanna's Bright Idea

As the villains thought, outside the door. Two other minds were hard at work. "Kagura, I have an idea." says a soft sweet voice. "What is it Kanna?" asks Kagura. "Well, they all care about the girl don't they? Well, what if they just took the girl? Then, they would all want to rescue her, and they would be lured into a trap." "Kanna! That's brilliant!" Kagura stands up and knocks softly on the door. Sesshomaru answers and her eyes brighten a bit. "What is so important that you must disturb us?" he hisses. "Well, Kanna had a wonderful idea." "We don't need the advice of a stupid child." he answers coldly, then closes the door in her face. She shakes it off, then returns to Kanna who was waiting around the corner. "Fine, if they don't want to use your idea, we will, but in a special way. I say that we go ahead with the plan, but in a special way. What do you think?" "Well, I don't want to defy master Naraku. But I like my idea... I don't wanna, you do it." she says confidently. "Fine! I'll do it all alone and then you will all be thanking me!" she storms out of the building. She summons some wind and flies away. (Stupid fools. Kanna's idea was a brilliant one! Can they not see that? Are they that insulant? oh well, I'll just have to arrange this myself won't I?) Flying into a small cave, which she had prepared for herself, Kagura began plotting.


	8. Kagura's Insidious Plot

Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi: this girl isn't me!

Yoshihiro Togashi: she isn't me either!

J.K. Rowling: Well she isn't me either you grammar ridden fools!

you heard the authors themselves so I need not say so!

Yes, Once again, a shorty! But hey, this is the last one!!!

Hard Knock Life

chapter 8

Kagura's Insidious Plot

She flew over the tree tops, laughing to herself over her brilliance. The plan was fool proof, and she would easily become Naraku's favorite, which would make him all the easier to kill. (Lousy Sesshomaru hadn't helped me when I needed it most) "Teh, and to think I even liked him!" she scoffs. She drops down in front of the castle. In her hand was a long silver hair, which she layed carefully in front of a door. She then took out her fan and sliced through door

after door. Satisfied, she then went to the Yomainu hideout and lured away one of them from the pack, disguising herself as a geisha. When he was far enough away from the rest, she slaughtered him, then left his remains in the castle, next to the hair. Then she went back to her cave and wrote a note. It said:

Kouga,

hope you won't miss your little wolf friend. Sorry he got in the way, but it was fun killing him, msybe you know where to look? The Northern tribe went looing there and look how that ended.

You know who it is

Pleased with her work for the day, she drops the letter at the end of their cam, then flies back to the residence in which they were all staying. "Kanna? It is taken care of." She calls throughout the room. "And what might that be? says an all too familiar voice behind her.


	9. Deaf Ears and Forgiveness

Disclaimer: I'm back in action for more long chapters! And guess what?! I'm STILL not Takahashi, Togashi or Rowling!

/.../=author's notes

'...'=Ariana speaking

"..."=everyone else speaking

[...]=Ariana thinking

(...)=everyone else thinking

... telepathic convorsation

rated PG-13 for violence, language and descriptive battle

Hard Knock Life

Chapter 9

Deaf Ears and Forgiveness

"And what is that exactly?" asks Naraku, annoyed. "I..um..I...we...uh" "SPIT IT OUT KAGURA!" "I plot to destroy the hanyou, once and for all, and get rid of that pesky woldf as well. A public service if you ask me." She says, then quivering a bit. "You, wind sorceress, are a disgrace. Do you not listen to the words uttered by your ssuperiors' lips? You were told ot to interfere and what do you do?" She looked down, regretting opening her big mouth. "i've grown weary of your impudence Kagura. Goodbye." With that, he called out his wizard friend and a green flash was seen through the room, and the long standing sorceress fell to the floor forever. "Hmph, it's so hard to find good help these days." /sorry, had to put that in/ He walked back into the cold grey room, mumbling to himself about how easily he could have made a new better detachment in the old days.,,,,

Cheryl woke up from her dream in a cold sweat. (Did I really just see that? Was it true? No, how ould it be, I'm not psychic! Or am I? Ari said she had a similar experience, but how could it be?) She glanced at the clock- 3:30. /a little bit of time has gone by, lets say, a week/ Try as she might, she could not go back to sleep, so she got up from the bed, put on a robe and went down the hall. She carefully pulled open your door and stepped inside, surveying it. (nice) she thought, edging towards your bed. When she was a foot away, she called out in a hurried whisper "Ari!" You dart up, katana in hand, searching wildly for danger. When you see Cheryl you relax. 'Oh, it's just you, sorry, I'm being paranoid.' "oh no it's ok! I don't mind, you had very right to freak out. I shouldn't have bothered you this early." "No! Why did you want to bother me anyhow?" you ask. "It was nothing, just a dream." 'A dream isn't nothing, you're a tlepath too, are you psycic?' "I don't know, I never have been before." 'Oh, well, what was it about?' "It was about some people, I don't remember their names, but they were talking about destroying a hanyou and a wolf. Then there was a green light and one of them, a lady, she fell to the ground and it looked like she was dead." 'That's serious. But it sounds like they were talking about Inuyasha and this guy named Kouga. He likes Kagome too.' /you told her about relationships so she knows who to keep distance from emotionally/ "Maybe they were." 'And if they were talking about Inuyasha and Kouga, and it was a man and a woman, then it must have been Kagura. But the man could have been Sesshomaru or Naraku. As far as the green light, I have not a clue, it could have ben a wizard, but then it would be Voldemort, and that would been they were associated, which would not be good.' "But the whole dream was like this, there was a beginning to it." So she tells you about it and then you start to hyperventilate. "Ari? Ari are you ok!? Ari!" You can barely breath at what you had just heard. "Hermione wake up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Cheryl screams. Hewrmione sits up with a start and sees what is going on. "Ari! Go get help Cheryl, go get someone! Quick! I think I can suppress this, but we need help!!!!!" Not waiting for her to say another word, Cheryl dissappears /she has speed as well/, reappearing in front of Kurama's door. She knocks, loudly and nobody answers. "Please! Open the door! It's important! An emergency!!!!!" At this, a very cross looking Kurama answers the door. "What? Can't a person sleep!?" he asks, in a very unKrama like way. "No! Not when Ariana is practically having a heart attack!!" she screams in his face. This wakes him up and he says "What!?" "You heard me! We need someone's help and one of those someones is you!! Now move your ass!" He is gone, running down the hall as fast as he can, but with Harry on his heals. Yusuke has come out over the commotion as has Kuwabara. "What's going on?" asks yusuke. "Just come with me you dolts, Ariana is in trouble!" They snap to attention and follow her throgught the halls back to your room. In there, you are no better and cannot breath at all. you see little blue dots in front of your eyes, but you are too afraid to do anything, let alone breath. You faintly hear people calling your name. 'Ari? Ari!!!!! Ari listen you need to breath!!! Please I beg you!!!!" cries Hermione, tears streaming down her face. Something hits you in the chest and it hurts, you grunt, but no breath is taken in. Another blow hits you and you gasp, bringing fresh sweet air into your lungs. You gasp and suddenly it all comes back to you. Hermione is crying ito her arms and Cheryl has tears in her eyes. 'I'm fine!' you choke out. "no, you're not. You could have died. Gone into shock, then you wouldn't have been able to be saved," says Cheryl. 'Who did save me?' you ask, looking at the group. "I did." says yusuke, who was standing next to you. Looking down, you say 'Thank you.' "now, mind explaiing what happened that you went into such a state? I might have broken your ribs had I punched any harder that first time." "that would be my fault, I'm really sorry." says Cheryl. "Sorry? Sorry?! you nearly kill the closest thing I've had to a sister and all you can say is 'sorry'?!?!?!?!?!" screams Yusuke. 'Calm down! It wasn't her fault, it was what she told me that caused it! She had absolutely no idea that what she was saying would do that! I didn't even know it would do that!' "Fine, she is forgiven this time." he says bitterly. 'Why do you have to be such an ass? How do you ever expect me to forgive you if you can't even trust my own sister?!' He looks down in shame, "Sorry." he mumbles. 'Whatever, I need to talk to Yusuke alone for a minutwe so if you could all please leave for a sec? That would be great.' They all comply to your wish and close the door on the way out. 'What is up with you Yusuke? You've been either really mean or just an ass in general, OR you are ultra protective! So what's the deal?!' "First off, I've tried to be anything but an ass. I've been 'mean' as you put it because I don't know what's going on with you! And I'm protective as you call it, because I have to be! That's what brothers do ! You could have died just know Ariana do you even realize that?! What if that girl puts you in danger and there's nobody around other than herr and she cant do anything!? What then?! Roll over and die?!" That really hurt you. He **never** called you Ariana, even when you were in trouble. 'I realize that perfectly. But who knows, **certain** people would rather enjoy knowing I was dead. So yeah, I geuss if my sister accidently "endangers" me, I'll keel over ok? Then you won't have to worry anymore.' You then look down, about to cry. You really had been about to forgive him and had wanted to know why he **was** acting like that because you really didn't know and didn't want to read his mind. But then, he had to take a low punch. Cheryl, [What if she accidently endangers you again?!] this plays over in your head a few times. "Ariana?" 'Are we friends anymore Yusuke? Are we?' "Yes, why wouldn't we be?" 'Because, look what you're calling me.' you whisper softly. "What? Ariana? Why is that a big deal? All your other friends call you Ariana except for Hermione, why should I be any different?! You sure as hell don't think so." Not saying another word, you quietly stand up, walk out of the room, out the back door /once again/ and to the tree, where they wouldn't look for a while. 'Because you're my **best** friend. That's why.' yo whisper, before the tears start to slide down your face. [Hm, considering I don't like to cry, I sure do this a lot] you think. You look down at the forest floor, 50 feet down and think [I can jump right now and it would look like an accident. They would never know, it would look like I slipped or something.] but then, you thought about the smiling faces of your friends and sighed. You couldn't do that to them. [But would they really care?] urged a little voice in your head. This just brought up mor e and more tears, and images of all of them dead played across your mind. Pretty soon you were sobing again. You don't notice the faint tingling in your head.

Hiei raised his head from his hands. He stands up and starts to walk into the hallway to go outside. yusuke still had not come down from your room and nobody knew you left either, except Hiei. He went directly to your tree and climbed up. Bloodshot eyes peered down at him from a sad girl's face. Your face. Yusuke what did you do ow?! he asks him I didn't **do** anything. I called her by her name and she just got up and walked away. Why were is she? She's at this damn tree, now what happened, if you don't say, I'll just read your mind. Fine, I told her her sister might endanger her life again, and she wouldn't listen. Then I called her Ariana and she asked if we were friends. I said yes and then she just got up and left Not believing he was telling the whole truth, he probes his mind anyways. Yeah, I think it's because you said that you weren't any more important than everyone ese. Well I'm not to her so what does matter to her? I'm guessing she is crying now? No, she stopped, I taught her how to suppress tears if she had to, and she desn't like to cry around people. If you were really the onna's friend, you would know that Well then I guess I'm not am I? Tell little miss sunshine up there to just forget we were ever friends. I'm starting to wish I could go back in time and just walk past that clearing fine. But then I wouldn't plan on her **ever** returning to us good irdance, insulant brat Hiei, who is very angry by now, jumps out of the treeand runs home. He jumps up to your window, walks throught the door and slugs Yusuke in the jaw. Rubbing his jaw, Yusuke yells "What the hell was that for?!?!?!" "Maybe she should start wishing that she could go back in time and just ignore your punk ass being beaten detective. Think on your words, because your going to kill someone with them, most likely, Ariana. I think you should go out in the woods, now." "No. Why should I?" "Because, if you don't I'll tell Cheryl and she can possess you and force you there. And she could make you do some other pretty embarrasing sihit so I suggest you move." Grumbling, Yusuke walks down stairs, out the back and to the tree. The soft tinkling of your crying stops abruptly when he arrives at the tree and he shimmies up. He sees the same blood shot eyes peering out to see who it is. When you see it's him, you raise your head, wiping your eyes. Once he sees you, he feels bad, yet again. But he still did what he came to do. He reaches out and snaps the chain to the necklace you were wearing. It was what he had given you for your birthdasy. It was a locket with a picture of you, Kazuka and Shizuru inside. The other side had a picture of you, Yusuke and Keiko. On the front, etched in, was 'to my best friend'. When the chain snaps from your neck, you grasp at your neck like a vampire had bitten you and you choke on your tears, unable to suppress them anymore. He takes a deep breath and says what he told Hiei, then climbs back down and walks out of the forest and into the house. He walks up the stairs and goes into his room. "Hey man, what's up?" asks Ron, who was leaniing over a big piece of parchment. Yusuke just shrugs him off and goes to sit in a chair. He thinks about what he did, then looks into his hand, at the pretty necklace. It hurt his heart to do that to you, but he had done it because he was so thouroughly angry. Ron had come over and seen the necklace in his hand. "Bloody hell. What happened? She threw it at your feet?!" "No, I took it back." "But why? It was your present to her wan't it?" "Yeah, but a present between two people who aren't friends doesn't account for muc does it?" At this, Ron drops it and leaves the room, letting yusuke alone. Instead, he goes to find Hermione, who just so happened to be in the small library. 'One hermione, always Hermione." he said shaking his head. He walked up to her, peacks her on the cheek then tells her of the situation. "Nani?! Not friends anymore?! That's rubbish! I'm going out to find her, want to go with me?" she asks. He nods, so they go outside, heading towards the forest and to the tree. When they get there, Hermione motions for him to stay down on the ground for the time being, before starting to climb. She finds you, but you don't suppress yor tears for her. She hugs you. "What's wrong? What did he do? What happened?!" 'Well, after you all left, he just started beiing really short with me, and he would only call me Ariana. When I asked him why, he said that all my other friends called me that, so what was the difference. Hermione, he's my best friend! That's sacred. And then, a little while ago, he climbed up here and he snapped my necklace directly off of my neck,' You lift you hair, showing a thin red line from where he pulled. 'The he said that he wished he had never helped mein the clearing, then he left.' Hermione blinks slowly, then says "I'll be back, Ron will keep you company ok?" You nod and she slides down, then Ron climbs up. He tries to cheer you up, but to no avail.

with Hermioone She stormed into her room, looking to kill. When she sees he isn't there, she walks down to the boy's room and shoves open the door. He looks up in surprise and sees Hermione. She is glaring up towards him and the gaze is so icy it makes him shiver. "What the hell is your problem?! How dare you even say Cheryl was dangerous to her?! You had no right, considering she almost died because of you. I wouldn't be too surprisd if she tried to commit suicide this time. How do we know that she didn't last time?! We don't and if she dies it is on your head. And you could have killed her anyways." "What are you talking about, how did I almost kill her?" "Well first off, she has a broken heart. You **were** her best friend, that was what calling her Ari signified. Secondly, the more dangerous one, when you tore that chain off her neck, you left a cut on her neck, several actually, The chain was tearing into her skin when you pulled and it was bleeding a bit, thankfully though, she didn't notice or she would have been crying harder, ater all shes been through. How dare you say you wished you didn't help her?! She would have died if you hadn't interfered and you know that damn well. And if you hadn't saved her, **you **wouldn't be around either, that demon would have killed you and you know **that** quite well. You don't deserve a friend as good as her. She was willing to risk her life for you, and you just threw her to the side like an old toy. Maybe you don't know what it's like, but it hurts. You are no better than Jeff, ponder on that." Not waiting for him to respond, she stomps out, slamming the door behind her. He watches her go, taken aback (I'm not like Jeff! I wouldn't hurt her!) (Then why did you rip that chain off of her neck? Why did you say those things? Why did you act the way you did?) said the small voice in his head. He shook his head, ridding himself of the thought, but it wouldn't leave.

back with you and Ron

You had fallen asleep a lttle while ago, but Ron made sure that you didn't fall. He almost woke you up, when a daddy long legs was on the branch and he screamed, but he reached his foot out and squished it, grimacing the whole time. You start to slip, but he catches you and pulls you back up, propping your back against the trunk again. (good thing this branch is wide, and sturdy) he thinks watching you sleep. Your face contorts in pain suddenly and your eyes pop open. You start to slip again and ron catches you, pulling you up once again, but by the stomach this time, since you fella bit more suddenly. 'Ron?' yoou ask. "Yeah?" 'Where are we, where is everybody?' you asks yawning. "We're in a tree, everybody is back at the house I suppose. Jus hope Hermione hasn't murdered Yusuke, cause then she'd have to go to jail." Suddenly, your memory reurns and Ron realizes what hesaid."Oye, I'm sorry, I didn't realize." YOu just shake your head, 'It's ok. I just really thought that I had found a best friend in Yusuke, I guess I was wrong.' You then feel up at your neck, and feel the scabs. Your eyes open wider than before and your reath catches in your throat. "Ariana? What? What's wrong?" 'M-my neck. Jeff, he,he iddi this tome before, h'he used string though and he tried to choke me, but he cut me instead.' Fresh tears come to your eyes."I'ms sorry if this si going to bother you Ron, but I don't think I can hold it back anymore.' "It's ok, you go ahead and cry." Nodding, two tears slide gracefully down your face,falling to th world below." Ariana?" 'Mhm?' "This probably isn't any of my business, but,have you ever thought about jumping when you have been up here? Cause, I mean, you are my friend, and it does matter, so don't say it doesn't." 'Truthfully? Yeah, I-I have, almost every time. But don't let epople know that, please. I don't want them to worry. Just a secret between us ok?' He noda. "Sure, just maybe, you should talk to someone when you are upset. Don't keep it inside. Harry did that last year and just ended up blowing up in our faces and being angry and cynical towards everything and everyone. Then he became kind of paranoid, so please don't. I don't care who you talk to, hell, even talk to me, but tsalk to **somebody ok?" **This time you nod. "Want to head back inside?" he asks. 'No, I think I'll say her a while longer.' "Nope, stay or go, remember last time you stayed up here alone? And that was 30 feet below this. You really hurt yourself then. We don't want that do we?" You don't answer him. 'Ok, let's go.' "Works for me, so many spidwrs in here, ugh." he grimaces at the thought of back in his second year, with Aragog. You blink, then smirk a bit. 'Ron, you're a really good friend, you know that?' "Thanks, and you're a good kid." 'Thanks. I wish I had a big family like you have. Or at least grown up with my family.' "yeah, it can be really fun. But other times its a pain in the ass. Actually, it was almost like this, except a bit smaller. I mean, there are 24 people living here. When Charlie and Bill come home we have 9 people at the house." /man, my familiy is bigger than the Weasly's?!?!?!?! Reminder : my family has 10...., jeez, same ammount of kids though, thats 7 if you don't know all the Weaslys/ The two of you walk inside and into the lving room, where a fuming Hermione still sits. "Did you take care of it?" asks Ron, going over to her and kissing her on the cheek. She brightens a little and says "I gave him a piece of my mind." 'Who? yusuke?' you ask. She nods. "How''s your neck?" she asks. You show her te scab and she scowls again. "I'm going to kill him, tonight, while he sleeps." 'No, don't, then you'll go to jail and leave poor Ron all alone.' Ron's ears go red,since you used his quote. You smil a little bit. 'I'm really lucky.' "Why is that?" aks Hermione. 'Well, because I hae some of the best friends in the world.' "And some of the worst." adds Ron. 'Don't qworry about that you guys. He's in for a shock tonight.' "What do you mean?" asks Ron. 'Well, lets just say "sweet dreams" isn't what he'll be having.' "But i thought you couldn't control dreams?" says Hermione. 'I can't, but Cheryl can.' They both nod, understanding your plan. You go tell Cheryl about it, and after explaining what happened, she obliges quickly.

Yuske goes and gets ready fro bed, quietly thinking about what he had done. (What have I done? I ripped the skin on her eck open, I am no betterthan Jeff. How could I do this? How can I just throw one of my best friends away like she **was** and old toy? Ugh, maybe my dreamland will be better.) And with that, he slips under the covers and falls asleep.

Yusuke's dream

_Yusuke was walking downa sidewalk and he heard someone cryingfor help, so he went to investigate. He saw through a whole in the hedges a younger girl, maybe around 12 or 13, being beaten up by some big bullies. rather than do anything, yusuke just watched as they beat her over and over again with the pipes and crowbars. When they finally quite, yusuke kept walking like he had just been walking past and when the bullies left, he ran into the clearing to see if the kid was alright. When he gets to her, he sees she isn't moving, her soft purply bangs hanging in her eyes a little. he checked her pulse and his breath caught. This poor little kd, was dead. He had done absolutely nothing to help her a t all and now it was too late. he left her for the police to find, but not before ripping something from her throat, he looked at the thing and saw it was a necklace. just then, the girl gasped, breathing in fresh air and sitting up, but when she looked up at Yusuke and started to say something to him, but then groped at her neck, she felt blood and then she bled freely, dieing again. Yuske opened the locket and saw the girl with Kuwabara, his sworn enemy and his sister Shizuru,, they were laughing with each other The other one with the girl, him and Keiko in the same fashion? Who was tis child. He grabbed her bag, looking for some identification. He found her card, name was Ariana Carter. She had gone to his school. Then he remembered her. He remembered teasing her once last year when a girl in her grade had flipped a tray onto her clothes. Everyone called her the goth of Sarayashiki. He remembered the girl having glared at him when he laughed at her and he looked down at her body. Scowling, he kicked her once, then took the few dollars she had and walked back out to the street. He lit up a ciggarette and started thinking about Kuwabara. (I'm gonna kick that stupid oaf's ass) he thought smugly. Just then, he saw a little kid playing with a ball in the street. Not even bothering with the kid, Yusuke started to cross the street, towards the manga store.. Unknown to him, a car was speeding down the street and it hit him, sending him flying. he looked down at his boy and scowled. "Am I dead?" he asked. "Yep, you sure are!" said a peppy woman on an oar. "Who the hell are you?" heasks. "Oh,I'm Botan., herew to take you to the river styx." she said quickly, jesturing for him to get on the oar. Raisnng an eyebrow, he did as he was told. When they reached spirit world she stopped. "Listen, I can't take you to heaven, I'm sory, so you must be sentencd to the fires of Hell" "WHAT?! WHY?" he screams. "Well, you took an innocent girl's life. Ariana was a great kid, and you killed her, I hope you're happy." Andwith that, she pushes him off of the oar, into the fires below her. Shaking her head she said sadly "Ariana, we miss you."_

Yusuke shot awake, panting. That dream was horrible. Hurriedly, he got out of bed and ran to your room. He threw open the door andsaw you weren't there. He runs up to Hermione and shakes her awake. "What the hell do you want you murderer?" she asks. "Huh? Where's Ariana?" "She's gone, or are you suddenly playing amnesia? You killed her Yusuke." "What?! NO! I just said I wasn't her friend! And I took her necklace, but I didn't kill her! I wouldn't hurt her!" "Really? Is that so? Well I hope you're happy. You're hands are soiled with guilt then. She was so heartbroken that she jumped. She jumped from 50 feet in the air Yusuke, she died on impact." He couldn't believe his ears. It wasn't true, it couldn't be! He hadn't **done** anything! Did she really care that much? "She **thought** you were her best friend, she trusted you more than anybody. And look what you did. If Ron or Harry or even Neville, Ginny or Luna did that to me, I might jump too. now it's too late. Now leave me alone, I'm surprised Koenma hasn't locked you up." and with that, she closes her eyes and falls back asleep. In astate of panic, he ran back to his own room and woke Ron up. "Ron! Where is Ariana?!" "She's six feet under stupid, she commited suicide becaus eof you rmember? It wasa month ago already.""What? NO! I just spoke to her yesterday! Afew hours ago!" "Well then you saw her ghost murderer. Good night." and with that, Yusuke got the same treatment he recieved from Hermione. How could it have come to this? It wasn't possible. He hadn't killed Ariana! He couldn'thave! He loved her /not anythiig more than a sister remember, Keiko is in this/ He then remembered that Keiko would still comfort him. He went to her room, but found a note on her door. It said

Dear Yusuke,

I hate you. You took that poor littl girl out of this world and Botan had to see her to heaven. Are you happy no? The ultimate revenge correct? I have gone back to my own home. Sorry, but this relationship is over. I'm _ terribly_ sorry I had to do this in a note, but I acn't look into your murdurous eyes anymore, or kiss the lips that caused so much pain. Don't bother stopping by my house, you won't find me. Goodbye forever, Keiko

He couldn't believe he was reading it. Keiko was gone too? A tear sprung from his eye and he went back to his room, lay down on his bed, and fell asleep into darkness. the darkness echoing the things he said to Ariana - a montha ago.

The next morning, Yusuke opened his eyes and went downstairs, very sullen. He went outside and went to the tree. Heclimbed up it and gasped as he saw you, with your arms around your legs, crying. "Ariana? You're alive?!" asks Yusuke, eyes wide. 'Yes, but why do you care? I should just slip off. Not like you'd care. Or even atempt to catch me.' "No! I would! I would! Please, don't let go! I'm sorry,I really am, just don't kill yourself, I can't bear them all being mad at me!" 'Oh, is that why I shouldn't let go? Well **anything** to save your pride.' You let go of one hand. "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLease! I'm sorry for everything I said! I didn't mean it! You are my friend Ari, one of my best friends! I'm glad I saved you! I'm glad I brought you here.I have no regrets! But please, please don't jump!" 'Really? Or are you lying?' you asks suspiciously. "I mean 100% of it! I swear! Please Ari, just come back down with me!" 'Ok.' you say quietly, following him down the tree. When you reach te bottom he hugs you. "Youare real! I didn't kill you! You aen't a ghost! You're alive! Everyone saidI killed you a month ago. " 'Maybe it was a dream Yusuke.' you say thoughtfully. "Maybe. Here take this. It's yours after all." You look at his hand, and there, in his palm, is the locket. You look up at him with big eyes and slowly grasp the chain and put it o. It stings where the chain cut into you and you wince. He notices. "Did I hurt you too bad?" he asks. 'No, but you did hurt me emotionally.' "yeah, I know that, and I don't really blame you if you don't want to have anything to do with me again." 'Why would I want that? You just hurt me really badly, and my neck was a reminder of something Jeff did once. But other than that, the fact that you would jst consider yourself one of the crowd, an insignifigance in my eyes, is what hurt most. You were my first **real** best friend and I hope we keep it that way.' "Me too. So it's agreed. NO more fighting between us." 'You bet.' So, the two of you walked back to the house, talking like you used to, just about stupid, random things. 'Yusuke, if Itold you something, would you be mad at me?' you ask hesitantly. "No, what is it?" 'Well, uh, it was me and Cheryl that made you have that dream last night. t was a dream in a dream sort of thing. Ron, Hermione, Keiko, ther were part of the dream. It was to make you open your eyes a bit, and I see that it worked.' "Yep, it worked alright, scared the shit out of me though." You laugh at this. "But I deserved it, so that works." 'Ok good, cause I wasn't gonna appologize.' "Meanie." 'That's me.' "I see you two made up." says Keiko with a grin spread across her face. Yusuke looks up "Keiko!" he cries, running and giving her a bone crushing hug. "Argh! What was that for?!" she says, obviously happy though. You roll your eyes and smile, walking past them, towards your room. Hermione is still asleep once you get in there. You yell very loudly, 'HVE YOU EVER HEARD OF THE EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM?!?!?!?' She raises her head slightly. "And have you ever heard of tthe SECOND MOUSE GETTING THE CHEESE!?!?!?!?" she screams back, sinking her head back into her pillow. You get a devious smile on your lips and leave. you go to Yusuke and Ron's rrom. You knokc and Ron answers the door, since Yusuke isn't there. he looks atyou curiosly, since you were smiling. "You two finally make up?" he asks. You nod and he says "thats good." and starts to close the door. 'Wat! I want your help!' "With what? It's too early!" 'Ron, it's 10:00!' "Exactly!" /guy after my own heart. Man I love the Weasleys/ 'I need your help waking up your girlfriend mr!' you say. His eyes popopen. "Well what are you waiting for? Move kid, lets go!" You giggle, then follow him back down the halls. You both go into the room on eith er side of Hermione's bed. Both of you grab two corners of the comforter she was sleeping on and lift up. Ron leans over and pecs her on the cheek. She bolts up, flailing around and causing you two to drop heron the ground. he gets up, rubbing her backsid. "I'M GOING TO KILL THE TWO OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!" she screams, running towards you, you say 'Sorry Ron' then bolt downstairs and into the closet that you hid in if someone was chasing you. nobodyelse except maybe Koenma knew about it, so it was perfect. You see Ron run by and Hermione not a second later. You hear a crash ad "See if you get any kisses this week dude!" and "NO! I give I give!!!!" and things of that sort. Yous slowly crawl out of the closet and sneak upstairs. You collapseonto your bed, about to pass out from sheer exhasution. Just as everything fades fromexistence you hear "Hey, that's no fair! She can'tsleep!" and then you wereoff into a deep sleep. Ron and Hermione sat there shaking you, tossing you around /carfully/and trying everything they knew to get you awake, but you remained asleep. They had Cheryl yell in your ear,and Hiei even charge at you with his katana, but you still did't budge and he ended up nicking your stomach a little bit. You slept all day and even into the night.

The next morning, you awoke at 10:00 and everyone who you had ever woken up before was jokigly glaring at you when you went downstairs. Botan was just putting in '_The Girl Next Door_' and you plop down in between Miroku and Inuyasha, the two worst seats in the house since you werestuck as well between Sngo and kagome. You get up while the previews are on and end up next to Hiei, Kurama and Shippo. Shippo, apparently, had been with either Kurama or Hei jst about every day, when he wasn't with his 'mother' /for you oblivious people, tht is Kagome, if you remember right, Kagome is his adopted mother/ The movie was hillarious /it actually is, saw it this past weekend/ and you have lunch. Then, you grab your katana and go outside to practice. You found out from Koenma that a blade t like that was very rare and the sword had power as well. The small ruby was a core to the power and the sapphire was the antidote to the power of the sword /like the conjuring blade kind of/ The ruby was a poisenous venom, the venom being excreted into the victim the sword cut, but only on comand, so she could train with the others. The sapphire produced a clearblue liquid and thre victim had to pour it onto the cut in order to heal it. You lunge and swing around with the sword, not in a bufoon type way, but sort of your own technique. After that, you go back inside, grab a water bottle and head upstairs to your room. You train in there a bit when you hear a chilly voice say "Well, well, well, Ariana."

some ending I know. I can't do review replies today, which I regret, but to those who did, you know who you are and I thank you for your comments,

Please try and review, I accept signed or not signed reviews, makes no difference to me. I don't care if you flame me, which I know somebody probably wants to, so go ahead, But if youare expecting sunshine on a cloudy day after that, then you are sadly mistaken. See ya next chapter and remember to check out my cowriter's story!!!!!! Buh-Bye my vassals.

_"How does it feel to live in a constant haze of stupidity?" Hiei to Kuwabara_


	10. Unasareru's Unexpected Visit

Disclaimer: guess what!! I'm still not Takashi, Rowling or Togashi. I bet you are really shocked!

note : I know I grouped these last few quizzes, but I have been having computer trouble lately, so, yeah, I hope my few loyal readers understand my situation. I'm sad though, nobody has e-mailed me as of yet. Please do that and / or review!! Don't forget to check out my cowriter's quizzes! Now enjoy today's installment. By the way. I will be doing a switch between characters from now on. That means like from the good guys all of a sudden to the bad guys.

I hope you know the markings by now!!

Hard Knock Life

chapter 10

Unasareru's unexpected visit

"Well, well, well, Ariana." says a chilly voice behind you. You whip around and gasp. There, in the doorway, stood Jeff. 'Jeff?! How the hell did you get in here?!' "My name isn't Jeff baka, my name is Unassrerus, learn it or you will scream it in pain." he threatens. 'Hm, how about no? I'm not going anywhere with you. Don't you think my friends will come to my aid?' "No." And why is that?' "Because I killed them on the way inside. Can't very well help if they are ghosts." 'You lie! I know you did not kill them all, so stop this stupidity. Yu have not the strength to kill my friends.' "Oh, but don't I? We shall see." He then lunges at you, and you grab your katana from under your pillow. You unsheath it and slash at him. The blade cuts cleanly through his arm and his hand falls to the ground. He is nfaed, and just keeps going with the barrage of attakcks. You block and slash at him constantly. "I had especial fun killing the one named yusuke. he put up quite a fight that one did. Said to tell you he was sorry or something like that. Too bad." In a burst of anger, you swing the katana with such force, you decapitate him, his head rolling to the floor. The head laughing and says, you can't get rid of me that easily foolish child!" [a demon puppet] you think. 'I AM NOT A CHILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' you scream, plunging the blade into his heart. this time, he explodes, and a wooden doll clatters to the floor in two pieces. Just then, Sango rushes in, Miroku at her side. "Ariana are you- a demon puppet?!" 'Yes, Unasareru- Jeff, he came here, but as a demon puppet.' "But that means Naraku is connected to this." says Miroku cunfused. 'Yes it does, but if they are working together, then who knows how much troube we are all in? We need to have a meeting, right now. Can you get everyone into the living room?' They both nod, and you seyt off into the living room. 20 minutes later, everyoene is assembled and waiting for you to say something. 'We have a big situation on our hands.' "And what might that be twerp?" asks Inuyasha, quite bored. 'We have a problem because our worst enemies have collaberated. cheryl saw this in a dream, and I have just confirmed it. Apparently, Jeff, who is known as Unasareru /a gasp is heard from Cheryl/ Naraku, Voldemort and possibly Sesshomaru are working together to get us. What are we going to do about this?' the wizards flinched when you said the dark lord's name, and inuyasha growled at the mention of his brother and Naraku. Yusuke looked angry with the name of unasareru, and Cheryl just looked shocked in general. "Ariana, you don't know how serious this is. Uasareru, he is a criminal. He was put in Spirit world prison for a hundred years, for the slaughter of a village and their protector, Ashton,but he snuck out and killed his guards, and he escaped. That was about 14 years ago." you look up. 'So what you are saying is, right after he escaped , he came looking for me?!' "Yes." 'I'll be right back.' you say, and walkdown the halls quickly towards Koenma's office. 'Koenma, sir. What was the name of the demoness I was reincarnated from?' "I believe her name was Ashton Ariana, why?" 'Because, he went to jail for slaughtering her. Jeff's real name is Unasareru.' Koenma's face goes blank. "Jeff is Unasareru?! He was on the most wanted list for a long time. Ashton was his sworn enemy, no wonder he kidnapped you!" 'He broke out of jail to steal me sir. Now he is joined with Naraku, Sesshomaru and Voldemort. We are in some serious trouble.' "Yes we are. Which means no more relaxing. Get everyone in here NOW." 'Yes sir.' then you rush back down the halls to get everyone.

The villain's office

"So, do you think that they pose a theat to us? OR do we just use a full frontal assault on the mansion?" asks Naraku, stirring his tea /I know, crny, but how about if it was poisen tea?!/ "Well, my puppet, thanks by the way Naraku, scared the daylights out of Ariana, but she did figure it out and she killed it, so I don't know if I can doubt her powers anymore. Her 6th sense is becoming stronger and with that Kagome girl, they will be able to sense Naraku, plus Inuyasha would smell dark energy. they have too many of them with adequate sense enought to tell we were coming. So a full frontal assault could be suicide, because they could tell where we were going to come from." says Unasareru "But could they not sense us if we tried to sneak in?" points out Sesshomaru. "yes, they could, so we need to find a way to conceal ourselves from all 'radar' they couldpossibly have. Voldemort do you have any suggestions? You are the one with a wand." says Unasareru. "There are several concealing charms. Which ones to use however, I know not. The spells could have side effects that I really would not like to have to go through." Voldemort says rather cynically. "Then we won't be going anywhere for a little while. We need to have this figured out." growls Unasareru.

outside the office

Shakily, but surely, Kagura stood up, dusting herself off. (What was that, that hit me? That weird purple ligt hurt a lot. But if they thought I was dead, why did Naraku not absorb me into his body? Did he know I would live? Or did he simply not want dead flesh in him? Oh well, whatever it may be, I need to get out of here. Kanna will go with me. She can't stay here. I won't let her. But where will we go? To my cave, that si where.) Kagura brushed throught the living quarters, towards the small room she and kanna shared. She found the child sitting cross legged in the center of the room, the mirror gleaming in her hands. "Kanna! Come, we must leav. We are leaving naraku." "Defy him? But why? Where are we going?" "Just come Kanna! Please!" "Alright." she says, standing up and walking towqards Kagura. They walked outside and Kagura summoned out her feather. She put Kanna on and then got on herself and they flew into the sky. Once they reached the cave, the feather set them down, and they went inside. Suddenly, Kagura was on her knees gasping for air. Back at the hide away, a man in a baboon pelt was squeezing a small dark sphere tightly.

Kouga's pack

"What's this?" said a deep voice, looking down at the ground. He reached out and looked at a note.

Kouga,

hope you won't miss your little wolf friend. Sorry he got in the way, but it was fun killing him, msybe you know where to look? The Northern tribe went looing there and look how that ended.

You know who it is

"This seems like Kagura's work. She's already tried this once before. But how do I know for certain that that stupid mutt didn't finally loose it?" "Kouga sir, what are you looking at?" "Nothing, go back to your duty." Kouga said sharply, causing the wolf to turn and run. "But I don't think Kagome would like it very much if I did that again, and it almost killed me mlast time. But I will go to the castle and see for myself. /I know, the castle was an illusion, but get over it, lets just say they put up another illusion ok?/ Kouga ran to the castle, smelling decay as he went. He stopped dead in his tracks when he reached the castle,s eeing inside to the dead pack member. Kouga's heart hurt to see this, but he managed to move his feet until he reached the body, and then he saw it, a long silver hair next to the body. "Damn you Inuyasha!!!!!!!!" he screams towards the sky. "I will avenge him, but how? This time I will listen to reasoning though, just in case the damned sorceress is trying to turn us against each other again. I don't want Kagome to get hurt and she very well might if we were to fight.

/ok i know, I did this really screwed up but deal with it. Lets just say the portal opened up to far and people could get in and out of the fuedal era freely, but only the main charcters of Inuyasha know about it, ok? Good. but Kagome's mom, her grandpa and Souta don't know about it./

At Koenam's masion

"Give me the remote you dork!" "NEVER!!!!!!" "Cut it out!!!!" "NO!! Give it up!!!!" "Hey, no fair!!!!!!" 'WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP!?' you scream through the noise. yusuke and Kazuka freeze where they are as you stand with your hands on your hips, waiting for them to finish. 'Besides,' you say, using your telekinesis to snatch the remote, 'it's my remote now.' you smirk as they sit and gawk at you. jusat then Hiei walks in. "Good, you're practicing your telekinesis, why don't you make it more useful and pick them up?" he questions. Your eyes go wide. 'Yeah right! i'm just learning how to use this stuff and you expect me to lift up a ton and a half of weight? That's cruel and unusual Hiei!!!' "Too bad, or would you rather pick up two tons of trees for another hour?" 'No, I'm good.' you say, and concentrate on your brother and yusuke up in the air. You hear shreiks from the couch and look over, still concentrating. the two are holding on to each other for dear life, looking down at the ground with wide eyes. You can't help it and you laugh, breaking your concentration, which sends them plummeting to the carpet below. They scream and yiu hear a thud, which makes you crack up even more. "besides, detective and baka, are you not supposed to be training?" asks Hiei smirking. "Shut up. We were training our channel surfing abilities, but now we will be practicing our running to catch that brat we call our sister!" yells yusuke, leaping over the couch and bounding towards you. You yelp and start to run, but he garbs you by the arm, pulling you back. 'NO! Leave me alone! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' you fake pass out. Yusuke just sighs and says. "Ok, now that she is passed out, she won't feel us tickling her." Your eyes snap open and you roll away. they get up and menecingly start to walk towards you and you scream and run away, out the back door. You sigh s breath of rlief as your speed kicks in and you leave them in the dust,literally. "Hm, seems she outsmarted the two of you again." hiei says, still smirking. "Ok mr. middle B class, bring it on!" yells yusuke, taking stance on one side of a coffee table. "YOU KNOW VERY WELL DETECTIVE THAT I AM AN A CLASS DEMON NOW AND YOU WOULD DOWELL TO REMEMBER IT!" Yusuke shivered at the memory of when the tunnel had been created and those demons were getting through and Hiei had left to 'think about things' once he found out he was only middle B class. But he had become an A class recently, which scare Koenma a bit, knowing that if hiei was more powerful, he could destroy them all. But what scared koenma more was Ariana. Ariana, being an S class demon, was potentially dangerous to everyone and the world. if she concentrated hard ebough with her telekinesis, she could very well blow up the entirety of japan, if not more so than that. If Ariana ever became evil, then they were all in serious danger, because she could destroy them all, without lifting a finger. /sorry, thought I'd put that in for those of you readers who know nothing about the classes/ you ran in between trees, knowing full well that they had tired out a while ago and weren't chasing you. You turn back around, since you would get lost if you went any further.but soon, you sensed another demon, within striking distance. 'Show yourself demon, now.' you say calmly. [hm, practice, this should be fun] you think as a shadow moves throught the wood. 'I said show yourself!' you yel. This time, a man comes throught the brush. He was wearing a wolf skin it looked like, but you weren't sure. "Who are you?" he asks. [he has a deep voice] you note. 'I was about to ask you the same qwuestion. Why are you trespassing in our woods?' "Look little human, if you do not get out of my way, I'm going to have to move you." 'What makes you thinkk I'm human?' you say, eyes narrowed. "Well, look at yourself." he says simply, gesturing to you. 'Oh I see, i need ears or a tail to be classified demon? ok.' you say and let the lgiht engulf you, you stepping out with your ears and tail. 'Better?' you ask, throwing a fire ball at him. It scorches his skin. 'Now I ask you again, who are you?' "I am kouga, leader of the Brown pack! Who are you, before I kill you?" he asks. 'Wait a second! **You're **Kouga?! As in, Kouag who loves Kagome?!' you ask, bewildered. "Yes, that is I, how do you know Kagome child?" 'I'm not a child Kouga. I could take you to where she is if you want, but I doubt Inuyasha would like that, or that Koenma would be happy about another guest.' "What is your name kid?" he asks. 'I thought i told you that I wasn't a child. I'm 13. My name is Ariana, but you can also call me Ari or Pyro, I don't care. That's what my friends call me.' "Well 13 isn't that far from childhood, you are just yet a young woman. But I think i will still call you Ariana.Ari or Pyro sound too confusing to remember." 'That works for me, seeing as how I don't know you all that well. Now come on, it's a pretty long walk back to the mansion.' "Ca you not run?" Kouga sks impatiently. Oh I could run, but I doubt you could keep up with me.' "Care to test that?" he asks, eyes narrowing. Nobody insulted his speed. 'Ok, ready set, go.' The two of you bolt off, running throught the woods. Kouga follows Kagome's scent and you both tear through tree after tree. It turns out as a draw, even though you ould have sworn your feet touched the outside of the forest first. "You are pretty fast for a child, I mean yound woman." 'Jeez, just say a yound person. Kid sounds too imature and young woman sounds too formal ok?' "Sure." Just then, you hear a growl behind you. You flip around, half expecting a demon, but it's only inuyasha. "What is **he** doing here Ariana?" he asks, gesturing to Kouga, practically spitting out the 'he'. 'I found hiim wandering the woods if you must know. Now stop being a baby and let's go inside. Koenma should know that he is here.' "Whatever." with that, the three of you head back inside, towards Koenma's office. kouga and inuyasha fall behind you. "Why did you kill my pack mate?" hisses Kouga, loud enough to get his point across, but soft enough so that you wouldn't hear. "i haven't killed anyone wolf. I've been here for weeks." "Then Kagura is trying to turn us against one another again." he says angrily. "Agaun? Does that wench ever learn?" 'Learn what?' you ask. The two look surprised you heard them. 'Yeah, ok, wolves and dogs are not the only creatures with good hearing. Why is Kagura trying to turn you guys against each other again? Did she not see how it turned out last time?' "How do you know about that?" asks Kouga sharply. 'Sango and kagome stay in rooms oneither side of me. We talk. Besides, it is better to know potential enemies to live in ignoorance until it is too late.'then you turn back around. "She is smart for a young... person. She seems wise beyond her years." Kouga says, sizing up your personality. "yeah, but she can be a right out witch sometimes, so watch out. Don't piss her off. I know from personal experience." A shot of fire, burns him in the arm, making him yelp. 'I can still hear you hanyou.' you call over your shoulder. Kouga laughs andyou smirk that he would still insult you while you were in hearing range. Had he not been burned enough times? "KOUGA?!" cries Kagome, rounding a corner. "Kagome!" he says happily. "It's good to see you. but whatare you doing here?" "i weent down that pesky well and instead of just hitting the bottom, I ended up in the woods over in a well in there." "NANI?!" she cries. 'But wait a second! Doesn't that mean the portal is open?!' you cry. Kagome slowly nods her head. 'This is bad.' you say, and start to walk faster towards Koenma's office. "Ariana? hat's the matter?" asks Koenam as you eneter his office, wrining your hands. 'He's our problem.' you say gesturing to ouga. "Another person? Jeez, I thought we had enough as it is." 'NO! That isn't the problem the problem is that he is from Inuyasha's time!' you cry out. "HE WHAT?! But that means the portal has been breached! Anyone could get through!" "Naraku." growls inuyasha under his breath. 'Sesshomaru' you say, knowing full well that the two were probably working with Unasareru. /his name means nightmare, everybody/ "Ok Ariana, I wll look into ti. But you have school in the morning, so I suggest ou get some sleep, as would i like you to tell the same thing to the other school goers." 'Ok sir.' you say. "Goodnight kogome, Inuyasha, Kouga.' and then you walk out of the room. You sop by Kuwabara's, yusuke's, kurama's and Kieko's rooms, but they were all already asleep. So, you go to your own room and put on a black wifebeater type shirt and black flared sweatpants, crawl into bed, and fall asleep, dreaming about miasma choking you to death/ miasma is Naraku's poisenous stuff he uses to disappear/

The next morning, you go downstairs and grab a a bowl of cheerios, sit down at the table and eat breakfast. yusuke joins you a few minutes later with some frosted flakes. 'You just have to have that sugar in the morning din'tcha?' you joke. "Course. then how could i tickle you?" he says jumping up. 'Ok point taken, but don't you dare or ill brun you.' you threaten. He instantly sits back down, hands on his butt, as if protecting it. You laugh and then put your bowl in the sink. 'Where is my brother?' you ask. "Oh, I think he is tryimg to get dressed. There's thatdance in a few weeks and I think he is going asking today." 'Oh, why doesn't he just ask Yukina?' you ask. "I dunno, but he doesn this every year and he just ends up going alone, since I go with Keiko. I feel bed for the guy, even that guy Okubo gets a date for this thing every year. What about you? Any guys ask you yet? What did you do before?" 'Well, this is the first year I'm actually allowed to go. It's because I'm finally in 8th grade, but even still, do you really think that Unasareru would ave let me go?' "You have a point there. Keiko and i always have gone together thoguh, even before we started dating." 'I know. you've told me about a thousand times Yusuke. trust me, i've been conting.' he wiggles is fingers and you shut up. "Just let any guy know who asks you that you have a bunch of older brothers who wouldn't want you to get hurt." 'Jeez yusuke, it'd be **one dance**, not a lifelong commitment. Besides. I won't get asked ayways. remember who I am?' "So what? Some guy has to have backbone enough to ask you." 'Yeah, that's true, but even the AV kids don't dare talk to me, so I don't know.' "Ah, oh well, even if nobody asks you, you can go and have a good time as it is." 'I guess, but if I'm not asked, I probaby won't go, that's valuable training time to be wasted.' "Yu need to stop hanging out with hiei Pyro, he's turning you into a mindless training bot just like him." "I heard that detective." says Hiei, who was standing behind him. You giggle as Yuske sweatdrops. Eventually, the five of you are packed into Yusuke's van and are off to school.

Infirst period, you sit, doodling in your notebook of pictures of your friends. You throught the day like this until fourth period. Mrs. Minanimo had given you all 20 minutes of freedom, and you sat behind your drum set, scribbling a picture of Cheryl in her demon form. "That's really good." says a voice behind you. You soin around and see Tom Himura /I stole kenshin's last name, sorry, I couldn't think of one/ staring down at you. 'Um, thank you.' "It's no problem, you draw really well. You play nicely too." 'Thanks, but why are you tsalking to me? I mean, not that I mind, but, you know.'He frowns. "Kara, doewsn't hold control over everyone Ariana. I've just been trying to get up the courage to talk to you. You aren't exactly the easiest person to find words for." You arestarting to feel a bluh tinge your cheeks. 'Are you trying to flatter me?' you ask. "well, yeah, is it working?" You laugh a little bit. 'Yeah it is. but I warn you, if you are just doing this to get a chance to beat me up, I'm not quite as much of a pushover as I was before.' A look of horror streaks his face. "NO! Why on earth would I do that?!" 'Because everyone else does. So why should you be an exception?' "Because you're better than that." he says quietly. You look up at him. He has a thin, but not bony thin, face. His eyes are a dark brown, and he has dark brown hair, his bangs falling over his eyes. His hair was pretty short, but it was the same style as Miroku's, with a small ponytail at the base of his neck. he was pretty tall, 6 feet. Tom ahd always been pretty popular, and Kara had had a crush on him for a long time. He had been in your class since kindergarten and you had known him pretty well. He was popular, but hewasn't a jock, and he wasn't stupid. he played drums as well, but he was 5th chair, while you are 1st. "So, um, Ariana, would you, um....would you wanna..." 'Are you trying to ask me to the dance?' you ask, a bit shocked. "Um, yeah. Would you like to?" 'Well, ok, sure, it sounds like fun.' "ok cool! Um, would you like to sit with me and my friends at lunch today too?" 'Well, would they mind?' "No, not really, they barely pay attention to the gossip of girls." 'Ok, I'll tell my brothers and my sister and they'll excuse me.' "OH, if you're going to get in trouble then-" 'No! They would just worry if I didn't sit with them and hadn't told them where I was going.' "Oh ok cool. Who are they that theycare so much?" 'Oh, they're older, they are Kazuma Kuwabara, Yusuke Urameshi, Shuichi minamino and keiko Yukimra.' "But they all have different last - wait did you just say Kuwabara and urameshi were your brothers?! And Minamino and Yukimura?!" 'Yes, why?' "Kuwabara and Urameshi, the school's two biggest bullies and Minamino and Yukimura, the two school brains?" 'Yep, that about sums them up.' "And their little sister is the school's best drummer. Some crew." You actually do blush this time. 'Actually, only Kazuma is my brother, the othr three are just so close to me that they might as well be my sibilings. besides, where else would i sit at lunch time?' He laughs then says "With me." You smile a bit wider. 'Somehow Tom, I think that they willbe ok with me sitting with you today, but I think that they'll want you tosit with us tomorrow. yusuke said himself this morning to tell any guy who asked me that I had older brothers just waitng to destryo anyone who hurt their little sister.' you pause and giggle at the sick look that had taken on Tom's face. 'Oh but don't worry about it! i didn't even think anyone would even ask me anyways. besdies, Yusuke is just a big softy. He wouldn't hurt you unless you hurt me, but then I would probably get you first.' You laugh and he sees that you are joking and relaxes. 'But seriously Tom, don't worry about it, you'll be fine.' You were right. they agreed for you to sit with Tom today, but tomorrow, the interrogation would begin. Tom looked terriefied to be in the presence of yusuke and your brother, but you calmed him down.

When you get to his table, he offers you a chair and you take it, then he sits across from you, so you can talk. "Hey, Tom, who is that?"asks a guy who you think is named Mark. "Oh, sorry, this is Ariana, she is my date for the dance. Maybe more, but we haven't gotten that far yet." he smiles at you. This time, you can feel your face turn the color of a cherry. He introduces his friends as Mark, Travis, Lee and Derek. They seem pretty nice to you, they didn't judge you like the rest of the student body did, and you wondered why you never noticed before. [I was probably wondering when they would take their turn at the human punching bag] you think, taking a drink of your water. You learn a lot about them.; It turns out that Tom, Mark and tracvis weren't named after Blink 182 /you had wondered, since they are one of your favorite bands/ All in all, you had a great lunch period, and Tom walked you to your next class. Kara sat behind you in that class, and she tried to bug you throughout the whole period. "So you are Tom's new whore huh? Have you done anything yet? Come on spill, we'd like to know your true nature. You eventually get tired of this and say 'I you don't shut up, that jaw of yours will be as uselss as your nose, and I'm sure your boyfriend would het that.' You had gotten detention for that remark, but you didn't care. After 7th period, you report to detention. Unfortuantely, Yusuke had managed to behave, but surprisingly, when you walked in, Keiko was sitting at a table, she looked like she was about to cry. Keiko? What are you doing here? She looks up at you and you sit down. Mr. Iwamoto was bad talking Yusuke again and Icouldn't hold my tongue anymore. I yeled at him and he gave me a detention for it. Well at least you stood up for him Keiko, I'm sure he'll be proud but my record! screw your record! You finally stood up to a teacher and got them to listen. That counts a lot more than a perfect record does. yeah I guess thst you're right, besides, it felt really good exactly, why do you think Yusuke, my brother and I are in here so much? I guess i knwo why now huh? guess so The two of you just talk for the time, and then Keiko calls a cab to bring you to the forest. The two of you walk home, because they didn't wait for you. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day, and you didn't even break a sweat. You had wanted to run, but you couldn't carry Keiko, and she couldn't run fast enoguh, so you walked. When you got inside, the first thing you both did was go up to Yusuke's room. When he answered, they two of you went inside and beat him to pulp, leaving many bumps on his head. Giggling, you go back to your room and tell Hermione about your day. Her eyes brighten when you tell her about Tom, and she demands more details. So you tell her everythin that you knew about him. She sighs "If only Ron was like that sometimes. he can be such a sweety at times, but at other times he is such an insufferable git I don't know how Irestrain myself from decking him!" Yu laugh at this, then the two of you go downstairs for dinner.

The next day, Tom walks with you to all of your classes and once lunch rolls around, he is very nervous and he is actually shaking. You pat him on the shoulder. 'Calm down Tom! It isn't that bad! I promise I'll hurt them for you if they get too mean ok?' he looks at you strangely.. 'Trust me I have my ways.' he nods, but he is still shaking like a leaf. You practically have to hold his tray upright, lest it spill all over him. When the two of you sit down Yusuke eyes him funny, which makes Tom worry even more. "How old are you anyways?!" asks Kuwa, staring at him. Tom straightens himself out, "I'm 14." "Don't you think that you are a little too old for her?" asks yusuke. 'He only just turned 14 Yusuke.' "And you only just turned 13 Ariana!" "Ok, next question, what is your gpa?" asks Keiko. You knew she was going to ask that. "I have a 3.2 gpa. Not anywhere as good as Ariana's I'm afraid. "Ariana, what is your gpa?" asks Keiko. 'Oh, it's 3.8.' "Ok, new question. What extra ciricular things do you do?" asks Kurama. "Um, I'm in student council, I think that Keiko knows that." Keiko nods shortly. "Ok, my turn. Will you hurt my sister? In any way shape of form?" demands Kuwa. It scares Tom a bit,and you shoot a small glare at your brother. "I don't intend to sir." "AH! Don't call me sir!!!!!" Tom jumps and you laugh. 'Kazuka, you're scaring him!' "Grr, I told you not to **call** me that in school Pyro!" 'Well, you deserved it.' you say, helping Tom up onto is feet. He sits back down for another barrage of questions such as:

Q: do you really like my sister, or are you using her

A: I wouldn't dream of using her and yes, i do like her, have for some time

Q: why didn't you ask her out before?

A: I didn't have the guts to.

Q: are you afraid of me?

A: yes, very much so

Yusuke: good, be very afraid

and many more of that sort. When the bell rings, you say you'll see them later and go on to 6th period. Kara starts up again saing "I see you took him to meet your body guards, that's nice, what'd they do, threaten him into taking you to the dance?" you don't answer just continue working on your assaignment. After school, you all load into Kurama's car, and drive home, nobody getting detentions that day. Yusuke starts talking. "I don't like him, he's too old for you." he says. "I like him Yusuke, he's an acitve member of our student government and he's a nice kid." Keiko says. "He seemed pretty nice." said Kurama. "Urameshi is right. I don't trust him. I think he'll hurt her." 'I'm sitting right here you guys.' "Right. I don't think you should go with him Pyro, he is too tall for you, he's old too!" says Yusuke. "And he might hurt you!" added Kauka. 'Right, what is he going to do, step on m feet?It isn't like we are going together.' you say, 'yet' you add under your breath. "NANI?!?!?" cries Yusuke 'Nothing, nothing at all.' "What are you going to do when he tries to kiss you huh? He's like a foot taller than you!" 'Actually, he's only 11 inches taller than me, I'm 5feet 1 inches, he's 6 feet.' "Well if you are going to get technical about it." 'And besides, if he tries to kiss me, f I want to,I'll kiss him back, if not, I'll turn him down ok? I'm a big girl!' "Wait! You are NOT going to kiss a guy a year older than you!!" 'But Kieko is almost a year younger than you isn't she?' "Yes, actually, 10 months younger, so what is the difference?" 'Yeah? What is the difference? Beides, you are acting morelike a fatther than a brother.' "FINE! Kiss him if you want, see if I care, but so help me if he even tries to add tongue, he will LOSE his tongue!" /sorry I had to do that./ You laugh alittle bit. 'Yeah right, like I would really kiss him like that at a dance?' You didn't realize you had said the _at a dance_ out loud. "NANI?!" 'nothing, nothing at all.' "NO! What id you say? Did you say at a dance/! You will NEVER kiss him like that! EVER!!!!!!" 'Jeez, brith a cow.' you say. 'Besides, you won't be around the whole night, so I can do whatever I please once you leave!' You couldn't help but test him to see how far you could push him. "IF HE DOES ANYTHING OF THE SORT, HE WILL BE IN THE HOSPITAL UNTIL HE GRADUATES IGH SCHOOL!!!!" 'Then I'll be at the hospital everyday, saying sorry.' you state simply. He knew he couldn't win, so he fell silent. Keiko burst out laughing. "What's your problem?" asks Yusuke grumpily. "YOU! You're lecturing he ron abstinance when all you can do is flip my skirt and you kissed me like that before I was 14 so why do you even bother? You can be such a hypocrite sometimes yusuke, do you know that?" He scratches his head nervously, "Um, heheh, sorry?" 'Damn right sorry! You lecture **me** on abstinance?! Look in the mirror!' yusuke meanwhile, is sweating bullets, and Kuwabara is laughing so hard he can hardly breath."Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up, I'm just trying to give her a good lesson in life!" 'Ok, sure whatever.'

Once you are home, you go tell Hermione about the car ride and the interrogation. She says immediately that we need to find something to do with your hair, and to find what to wear. You knew it was more of a formal dance, more like a prom than anything, but the administration decided that it was too early in the year to be called a prom, so it was called a dance, despite the formality. the two of you go to the closet on the side of the room /for clothes, not the weapons closet/ The two of you look through the several dresses you had aquired. It turned out that the two of you were the same size, so you borrowed each other's clothes. Finally, you found a dress, one that stilled showed you were not a peppy person, but it was nice enough that it ooked very formal. You went into the bathroom and gazed at yourself. you had changed considerably since you had moved here, emotionally as well as physically. Although you were still big boned, you really didn't appear it, since you were in shape, your arms and legs and stomach were toned, but not in a very muscley way, so you looked pretty thin. You looked a lot more like a teenager now than you had several months ago. You had been living at Koenma's for almost half of a year now. your hair had grown longer, about 3 inches below your shoulders, and your bangs had grown as well, so they looked very elegant. They were long enough so that when you put your hair up, you could tie them up as well, but usually, you didn't. Your eyes, which had always been wide and full of fear a few months ago, were much prettier and more daring than they had ever been. The hair dye that had once made your bangs purple had faded away, but you had liked the hair color, and had redyed your bangs, but it was a darker shade, only slightly, but it made a difference. People had been looking at you differently, but you hadn't noticed.. You hadn't noticed boys in your classes staring at you on more than one occasion. Nor had you noticed that people had lightened up on teasing. All in all, many boys who had teased you in the past, now stared at you intently until you happened to look up to glance at the clock and sigh. If Tom hadn't of asked, somebody else wouldhave, somebody just for your looks. You got changed into the dress, looking at yourself in the floor length mirror. The dresslooked great. It was a black dress, with a red ribbon corset type ting. The corset went down to nearly your waist. It was spaghetti strapped and the dress itself went down to just below your ankles. It clungin the right places, and was loose in the right places. Hermione knocked and you let her in. She liked how it looked on you, then she used a charm that made your hair appear in a certain style. She said how she wanted your hair and the charm made your hair appear like that, though it was really down, how you had left it. Eventually, you decided that you would curl your bangs and put the rest half up. You decided to wear two black hoops, that gleamed in light. "Ok, talk about planning ahead!" said Hermione happily. You nodded in agreement. 'Yeah, but imagine,if we had waited, then we would never have found the right dress because we would be worrying too much. Now all we have to find is shoes, but we can do taht later on, like maybe a week before that dance of yours." she said smiling. You grin back. "Tom isn't going to know what hit him." 'Sure he is. It's going to be Yusuke's fist when Tom tries to sit next to me.' you say. You both giggle, then you change back into a plain black shirt and jeans.

The day had finally come. It was a Saturday, and the "Dance" would be in the gym that night. Keiko was running around, making sure she still fit into her dress, checking she could walk and dance in her shoes. You just lounged with Harry, Ron, Nevilla, Hermione and Miroku. Hiei was out training somewhere with Cheryl, Kurama was already gone, at his date's house, yusuke and Kauka were fighting about who's tux was who's, Inuyasha was with Kagome somewhere, and all the other girls were halping Keiko. "Hey Ari, why aren't you doing what Keiko is doing?" asks Neville. 'Oh, because Hermione and I did the smart thing and she helped me decide on everything over a week ago, all I have to do is get dressed and it is only like 10:00 in the morning. Tom won't be here until almost 5:00. So why should I rush about?' He shrugged and ou went back to fiddling wih a knot in your hair which you had hopelessly stuck. You were afraid that you would burn yourself tonight if you tried to curl your own hair, so you volounteered hermione to do it. But she said that you had to have our hair all brushed out, so that was your project for the morning. The boys and hermione were playing cards and Hermione was lovign it. They were gambling on Old Maid, which Hermione was undefeatable at, little known to the boys. Hermione's small pile of yen was increasingly growing. "Man," grumbled Ron, "I'm losing more money to my girlfriend than I did to Yusuke! What is my mom going to say?!" You laugh. 'Mrs. Weasley will probably pat Hermione on the back and thank her for teaching you a lesson when it comes to gambling.' you say, still fidgeting with the brush. You yelp as the comb finally goes through, untieing the knot, Harry laughed at you, as did Inuyasha, earning them both scorching rear ends. 'That is a fun way of payback. ' you say sweetly, watching the two run around like maniacs looking for water or an ice back to sooth them. Ron bursts out laughing, holding onto Hermione for support. "Harry, mate you look rediculous, you know that?!" he cries. "Yeah, and so are you when I mess up your face!" yells back Harry, who finally found a bucket and filled it with water. Inuyasha already had an ice pack on his butt though and was glaring at you. Kouga had just walked in and seen the scene, and he was currently rolling on the floor. Finally, at 4:00 the two of you head upstairs and she curls your bangs and ties it up. Then you put the dress on, carefully. You go over to your jewelry and pull out a black ribbon that you usally used as a hair bow and tied it elegantly around your neck. Your nails were wiped clean of any nail polish and you put on the 2 inch platform shoes that Hermione had forced you to buy at the mall a few montha ago. You lined your eyes and put on a thin coat of gloss. You look at yourself in the mirror and sighed. You looked pretty good. You walk out into the bedroom itself and Hermione and Ron are sitting there. They applaud and you curtsy. Then the three of you go back downstairs and wait. It was 4:45. Keiko was downstairs and looked very pretty. She had her hair in a bun and was wearing a periwinkle blue dress that hung on her perfectly and she was wearing a very light coat of white lipstick, she had lined her eyes with white and she was wearing white hells that tied up around her calfs. You both smiled at each other and just then, the doorbell wrang.

Harry opened the door and Yusuke was standing there with Tom, btoh in black tuxedoes and roses in their hands. Kazuka comes down the stairs then and sees them. He glares at Tom then gives a thumbs p to yusuke. Thankfully, you didn't see this, or you would have burnt him. You grin at Keiko and then the boys step inside, offering their roses to you. Think Kurama contributed to those without his knowledge you ask her yeah, but I doubt he'll mind You accept your rose and smile at him. He offers his arm and you take it. You wave goodbye to everyone, blowing a rasberry at Inuyasha and Harry, then walk out the door. Outside is a limousine and you turn to Tom. 'Did you do this?' He nods. "Partially, yusuke paid for half." 'Oh you guys are sweet.' you say, sliding inside next to Keiko. Tom gets in and shuts the door. The four of you talk on the way. "Why do they bother calling it a dance if it is so formal? Dances are shirts and jeans." says Tom. 'Eh, it's only because it's the beginnning of the year. You know, proms are usually at the end.' "There is probablyone then too." says Keiko. "Probably." agrees Yusuke. When you get there, you walk inside and see the display. Keiko had dressed acordingly, since the theme was Winter. 'Aw, Keiko, you could have told me!' you cry, sice you stood out quite clearly amongst the white decorations. "I'm sorry! I had to take an oath." 'Oh, alright!' "It does't matter, you look even prettier since you are different." says Tom. You blush and sit down at a table with Yusuke, Keiko, Kuwabara, Kurama and his date who was named Erica. 'Ya know Kazuka, if you had managed to get a date, we could have had a full table.' you say. He just smiles at you smugly. "For your information, sister, I **do** have a date, but she is in the ladies room getting ready. Just then, a pretty girl with sea foam grren hair cam up to the tale and sat down next to Kazuka. 'Yukina?!' you ask, shocked. She smiles and says "Hello" to everyone. Keiko, Hiei is going to have a fit I know, good thing I'm not sleeping there tonight Jee, thank you, oh supportive friend of mine I'm sorry! Have fun, I'm dragging Yusuke to the dance floor now ok Keiko then stood up, and really did drag Yusuke out to the dance floor for the song. The song was a bit too much like rap for your liking so you stayed seated with Tom. Then, Tom got up and wandered away for a minute, coming back with a grin on his face. 'Wha did dyou do?' you ask worried a bit. "Oh, nothing." He then offers you his hand. "Care to dance?" 'I'd love to.' you say taking his hand and standing up. He leads you to the dance floor just as the song ends. The song beat picks up and 'All the Small Things' comes on. You stare at him. 'How did you-' "I asked Yusuke." is all he says.

_all the small things_

_truth care, truth brings_

_I'll take, one lift_

_you're ride, best trip_

_always, I know_

_you'll be at my show_

_watching, waiting, comiserating_

_say it ain't so_

_I will not go_

_turn the lights off_

_carry me home_

_nanananananananannananananaanan_

_late night, come home_

_work sucks, I know_

_she left me roses by the stairs_

_surprises let me know she cares_

_say it ain't so _

_I will not go_

_turn the lights off_

_carry me home_

_nananananannanananaannanananaan_

_keep your head still_

_I'll be your thrill_

_the night will go on_

_my little windmill_

_keep your head still_

_I'll be your thrill_

_the night will go on, _

_the night will go on_

_my little windmill_

During the song, the two of you jumped about, dancing as best you could to a song like that. Then a slow song came on and Tom looked at you. "Do you want to sit down?" 'Not really, do you?' A look of relief passd his features and you caught it. "Not in the least." You put your arms around his shoulders and he put his around your waist. Yusuke pointedly moved over towards the two of you. When your back was turned to him, Yusuke pointed at you and made a heart with his hands. He slowly broke the heart apart. Then he pointed to Tom and slid his finger along his neck. Tom gulped but kept dancing. Most of the night went like that, a good song ame on and you dnaced, or a slow song, in which case Yusuke would move Keiko over there. Finally though, the night had to end, and that was at midnight. Kuwa, Yukina, Kurama and Erica catch a ride as well. First they drop off Erica, then Tom, but not before you gave Tom a quick kiss on the lips, much to Yusuke's disdain. "Well that was fun." says Keiko. "Yep, the twerp kept his hands off. You glare at him, but find Keiko already doing so. thanks you say. It's no problem, he barely even acknowledged my existence tonight. He was too busy making sure Tom was inline. but I think you scraed him just now good. Tom isn't a pervert and Yusuke would do well to know it the tell him I'm going to, right now! They arrived at Kurama's house before you could say anything and you bid him goodnight. 'Yusuke, just to let you know, Tom isn't a pervert so stop being psycho stalker brother ok?' 'yeah, he wasn't tonight, but what about next tie? Or the next?" 'JEEZ! CHILL OUT! He isn't like that, now pay attention to Keiko, you barely even noticed hertonight because you were too busy watching us!' He blushes then starts talking animatedly to Keiko, who seems pleased. Then keiko's hoouse rolls around, and she says "Goodnight to everyone and gets out. That left Yusuke, Yukina, Kazuka and you. 'Hiei is going to have a fit that you went out Yukina.' "I know. But I had a lot of fun,so it's ok." "I'm glad!" says Kazuka. "So, Pyro, when is your next date with the future lecher?" asks Yusuke. An anger vain appears on your forehead. 'He is NOT a lecher, nor will he EVER be one! SO GET OFF MY BACK!!!! As far as a second date, or a real one for that matter,' you glare at Yusuke,' I'm not sure,we didn't talk about it.' "See?! He's going to hurt you!!!" 'No, we just didn't have time to talk about it tonight, we were busy trying to avoid YOU!' "Oh, heheh." He rubs the back of his head nervously. Soon, the limo is outside the mansion, so the foru of you get out and walk into the house. It is deadly quiet. 'Strange, nobody is ever asleep quite this early anymore.' you say gesturing to the clock. It was 12:30. "BAKA, YOU ARE DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!" yells hiei from the top of the stairs. Hiei, calm down! She came on her own free will. I promise. stay out of my head nna. I need to murder your brother right now 'NO!!!!!!!!!' you scream. Hiei unsheaths his katana as he runs and he lunges for Kazuka. 'DAMN IT HIEI!' you scream, running towards your brother in hopes of blocking the blade, but you are to faraway from him, and as Hiei swings down the katana, Yukina, jumps in front of him, taking the blow in her stomach. Hiei stops the instant the blade comes in contact, but it still cut her. "I came of my own free will." she stated simply, before falling to the floor, unconcious. 'Yukina!' you cryout, rushing to her side. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" he yells, pushing you aside. You run upstairs and fling open Botan's door. "Pyro, what's wrong?" 'Emergency downstairs. yukina. c;mon' Rotan goes with you, running as fastas she can, and you end up using your strength to lift her up and run. In two minutes, you were back andBotan was at Yukina's other side.

Wow. I knw=ow, feel free to flame me for that one. I'm evel sometimes, I really am. ohwell, ee ya next time. throws down somemiasma solen from Naraku to get away with out injury


	11. The Yomainu Who Never Gives Up

Disclaimer: I hope you know by now that I am NOT Takahasi Togashi or Rowling, cuse these things are getting really old!!!!!!!! I may stop them, tell me if I should, because you know I didn't steal these characters.

if you don't know the puncuation by now, you never will, so go back to a previous

chapter and look there, just not chapter 1, cuz it isn't there.

note: in chapters 1&2 I was using notepad in the dropdown menu on the start menu,

so if it is all distorted, I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do. my other wordthingies were not working!

Hard Knock Life

chapter 11

The Yomainu Who Never Gives Up

In two minutes, you were back at Yukina's side, Botan at her other side. "Why is she cut like this? " asks Botan while she heals Yukina.

"I accidently cut her." says Hiei, in a worried voice, very unlike him. "And WHY did you _accidently_ slash her?!" demands Botan. "I was

trying to get him and she jumped in the way." he says glaring and pointing at Kuwa. Kuwa is currently on his knees, eyes closed, looking

close to tears. "Where is everyone tonight may I ask Hiei?" asks Kurama. "I think they are upstairs, I scared them on my rampage of

destruction. Even the hanyou and the wolf." You werew tempted to giggle, but restrained yourself for Yukina. Just then, Botan finishes,

and Kuwa picks Yukina up /much to the disliking of Hiei/, takes her to her room, and lays her down on her bed. He burshes right past

hiei on his way out, not even bothering to get mad at him. (She protected him. Does that meen she cares for im? But the baka? What a

bad choice. At least the fox has manners, though I'd have to split his throat while he slept, and he is my friend..........) Hiei thinks,

watching Yukina sleep. He walks over to the window sill and looks up at the full moon.

with you

You walk into your room, obviouslly angry. Hermione, who was in there with Ron talking, had noticed. "What's the matter? Did you have

a bad time or something? Was he annoying?" she asks. 'No, but that stupid oaf who claims he is Yukina's brother is a jerk.' "Who hiei?

What'd he do to you?" asks Ron. 'He didn't do anything to me. It's what he did to Yukina.' "What do you mean?" 'Well, Yukina went

with Kazuma to the dance thingy, and when we got home, hiei was pissd off, as you probably know. Well, he went slashing at him, and

Yukina jumped in the way, getting hit in the gut with a full blow.' you say bitterly. "WHAT?! Is she ok?!" cries Hermione. 'Yeah, she's

fine, Botan took care of her. But I might have to kill hiei.' you say, narrowing your eyes.. "Ari, don't even think on it! Remember what

happened last week, when those stupid slaes people from a village wouldn't shut up?" asks Ron. You remember that quite well. These two

salesmen from a village a little way aways had come to the door and wouldn't leave, no matter you tried to persuade them. Finally you

were so mad you wished they would just burn, and their clothes caught fire. Luckily, Cheryl was there and used her wind to stifle it. You

still snickered at the memory. "Need I remind you, that you are an S class demon?! you are potential danger young lady and I don't want

you blowing up the Earth! We are rather fond of it if you have forgotten." says Hermione fake sternly. 'Yes _mother_.' you reply, standing

up. 'I'll let the two of you get back to making out now.' you say sweetly, and walk out of the room. Ron's ears and Hermione's face turn

the same shade of rosy red. Smirking at yourself, but still angry, you make your way down the hallways, letting people know it was safe

to show face around the house again. Once you are sure that everybody is gone out of the halls, you go to Cheryl's room and open the

door. You practically scream at the sight. Hiei is in there, tearing the room apart. 'What the hell do you think you are doing in my

sister's room?!' you ask angrily. his head shoots up. "none of your business onna, now go away." 'NO! Get out of her room!' "You get out!

" he screams back. 'I'm allowed in here!' "WEll so am I!!!!!" 'PROVE IT!' "Fine call her" 'Maybe I will.' you say. 'But for now, OUT!!!!'

Grunmbling about falling apples and trees, he stomped out of the room. Cheryl? Yes Pyro? Hiei was just in your room. He said he

was allowed in there. Whats that supposed to meen? I though nobody else could know aboutit? Um..well... I said he could. It's ok.

He was rummaging through drawers WHAt??! Which drawers? The top drawers what a lecher. burn him for me Wait, are

those your YES! what an ass You think specifically of burning hiei's butt, and a few seconds later... "DAMN YOU ONNA YOU

ARE DEAD!" You smirk as he runs up the stairs with his sword drawn. Just as he is about to strike, you force out a fire shield. It

surrounds you and try as he might, his blade can not reach you. Smirking, you stand up and walk out of the room unscathed, practically

feeling hiei's eyes burn into your back. Cheryl, where are you? you ask. I'm in the tree, why? Cause, I'm coming to see you

ok, see ya in a few you got it YOu walk out the back and start climbing. You finally find her on one of the top branches, more than

50 feet up. 'Why'd you have to come so high up?' you whine, your arms wondering more than you. "Well, it's an adreniline rush, being

so high up and not knowing whether you'll fall" she slips off and grasps the next branch under you, flipping herself back up. "Or if

you'll just fall" and then she lets go all together, freefalling to the ground. As she had in the circus, she summoned some wind and floated

back up. 'Man, you and Jin would get along famously.' you muse. "Jin the wind master?! You know him?!" 'Um, yeah, so does yusuke.

The two of them are pretty good friends actually.' "NO way!! He's my idol. And he's pretty cute." 'Make up your mind! First you say

Hiei, now you say Jin, what is your problem?"' "I guess I'm just boy crazy." she syas, swinging herself around and around the branch.

'Hey Cheryl?' you start. "Yep?" 'Well, do you remember that first day, when you acted all ditzy and then you acted all serious? Which

was the real you?' "Well. I was lying about the spirit detective thing. I just said that because I knew Hiei was listening. But I guess

both really. I can be a ditz at times, as you've seen but I can be really serious too. Like about training, which is one of the reasons I

adore hiei, because his training plan is the same as mine. There is no plan, just keep doing it." 'Yeah, and why exactly is he allowed in

your room?' you ask. falling backwards while holding onto a branch, with your hands and feet, so you were swinging upside down. She

starts to choke and almost slips. "Well...um..he..uh" 'Jeez, just say he's your boyfriend and get it over with!' "Ok fine. you guessed it."

'Maybe you should get some tips from Sango about what to do with lecherous boyfriends.' You both giggle. 'I'll going to leave. I think

my brother might need some comforting.' "From what?" So you tell her about the incident. "Hold on." she says and you could swear you

heard "AHHHH COLD!' from the house. 'See me down?' you ask. She nods and then you feel the wind is supporting you, so you let go.

At about 5 feet from the ground, the wind breaks dropping you. you land on yoour feet though. 'DAMN YOU CHERYL!' you yell up.

You hear her laughing and then you run back home. you first go to Yukina's room, to check that she is ok. She's asleep, so you go to your

brother's door. You knock softly, and Neville opens the door. "Oh, good. You're here. I think he needs some sisterly therapy, because

he is **depressed**. the last time he was like this was when you were unconcious from that fall of yours." You nod, walking in to see him

laying on his side, facing away from the door, still in his tux. 'Kazu.' /that's your other nickname for him. He doesn't mind this one/

'Kazu? Are you ok?' You get no response. So, you walk over and give him a hug. 'Ok Kazu. We can do this the hard way or the easy way.

Either you get up and change out of that tux, or I'll make you do it.' He gets up slowly, and goes to change into a wifebeater and pants

/what are those pants called? They go with a haori/ When he comes back out, you give him a hug. 'I'm sorry. But she is ok. You know

that.' "I know that, but that isn't what is bothering me Ari." he says softly. His voice sounds distant, almost in another place. 'Kazu?

What's the matter?' "He could have stopped, but he didn't. he could've." 'No Kazu, he couldn't have. He was going too fast.' you say

gently, sitting down next to him. "Yes he could have." 'Kazu.' You loose your words. His face looks so distant, so far away. You wave

your hand in front of his face, but he still stares blankly out. 'Kazu?' no reply. 'Kazu?!' 'Kazu!!!' he won't answer you. You shake his

shoulders, yell in his ear, all you cold possibly think of to snap someone out of a daze, but nothing is working. 'Neville! Go get somebody!

Get Botan! Got get Botan!' He doesn't need to be told twice and they are back in five minutes. "What is wrong with him?" asks Botan,

looking at hiim. 'He won't **do **anything!' you cry out. "Kuwabara?" he doesn't respond. She does the same things you do, but to no avail.

"I can't tell what is wrong with him." she says worriedly. 'KAZU!' you cry, hugging him. Yusuke walks in, grumpily. "What'd he do now?'

You are crying into Kuwa's shoulder and don't notice him walk in. "Dude. What is wrong with him? Ari? What's the matter?" 'He won't

move. It's like he is frozen or something!' you choke out. "Well if he is frozen, why don't you thaw him out?" he suggests. You look up

at him as if it was a ray of hope. You form a smal, very small fireball in your hand, making sure the fire isn't hot /you could make cold

fire if you wanted/ and touch it to your brother's skin lightly. His face, which was cold and hard, seemed to softn a bit. He sputtered

and then just passed out latogether. Your face, which had been full of hope when he started to sputter, dropped again as he fell backwards.

You gently pick him up and put him on the bed right and then get up and leave silently. They watch you go. "man, that family takes injury

to those they love to heart. Silence." says Neville watching you disspapear around a corner. "Yeah, Kuwa has been like that forever.

Even before we were friends.. All Kuwabaras are like that. Good thing Shizuru is at work, or else she'd be a wreck." Yusuke says flatly.

Botan nods in agreement, before motioning that they should leave. The two leave, letting Neville look at his new best friend's emotionless

face.

you

You walk down the empty hall way, watching as a clock somewhere in the house hits :00. You had never gone back to your bedroom, but

had just walked around, making yourself invisible /not litterally/ when need be. Hermione had not come looking for you, and you had

figured that she had fallen asleep before she hasd started to worry.Just then, you heard howling coming from a window close by you.

Raising an eyebrow, you walked cautiosly to a window and leaned out, seeing Kouga on a balcony you had never noticed before, howling

at the full moon. he then began to speak, to nobody in particular. "I wish Kagome would have chosen me over that mangy half breed. I

want her to be mine, and yet, she looms in front of me and i take no action. And yame, I just blew her away as if she were a speck of

dust. I shouldn't have done that, since she was open arms for me, but I love Kagome, not Ayame. She will be mine" Your eyes go wide.

What in the hell was he planning to do? Get _rid_ of Inuyasha, permenantly? No, you couldn't let him do that. Inuyasha, despite the fact

that he could be an asshole, was an ok guy once you got to know him, and you wouldn't want to see that happen to him. But yoiu had so

much already in your life. Kazu, Yusuke, TOM, Hermione...and now you had to worry about Inuyasha as well? jeez, how do they expect

me carry this load on my shoulders? well, you are an S class demon, not like you can't handle it said that little voice in your head.

yeah, but that is physically holding the weight of the world, not emotionally

The next day, Kuwa didn't go with you and you were silent the whole ride to school, despite desperate attempts by Yusuke,Keiko /who

had come back to the house/ and Kurama. You were silent throught first, second and thrid period. At fourth period, you played, but not

well. Tom came up to you at the end of class. "Ari? What's wrong? You're beat was off today. Is something the matter?" 'Kazu.' is all

you say, then you look back down. "Kazu? You mean your brother, Kuwabara? What's the matter with him?" 'He's sick. Really sick.'

you say, as tears start to well in your eyes again. "How did he get sick Ari? I just saw him on Saturday with you at the dance."

'Yukina, the girl he was with, her brother tried to hurt Kazu when we got home and Yukina jumped in the way.' "So, is she ok? But what

does that have to do with **him** being sick? C'mon Ari, talk to me!" 'Kazu was so upset that Yukina got hurt that he jus..he just... he just

stopped.. functioning altogether. I tried **everything** Tom, and nothing worked!' you cry out, tears streaming down your face. He grabs

you and pulls you into a hug. "He'll be ok Ari. He will. But please don't cry. Please." The bell rang and everyone left silently, having

heard you. Tom walked with his hand draped over your shoulder to the lunch room. Today you were sitting, thankfully, with Yusuke,

Keiko and 'Shuichi'. You sit down in your usual seat, the one on your left remaining empty, while Tom sat down to your right. "How you

holding up kid?" asks Yusuke. You nod your head. "She isn't doing so great. She broke down in fourth period, she couldn't even get her

notes right." You nod to show it's true. "He'll be ok Ari. Kuwabara isn't a quiter. You should know that, you are his sister." This causes

you to choke on your food, and Tom has to hit you in the back so you can breath. "Ari, maybe you should go to the nurse. You look awful."

suggests Tom, his eyes glinting with worry. "Good idea, why don't you take her? But so help me, you lay a finger on her!" says Yusuke

threateningly. Tom helps you up and puts his arm around your shoulders again. "Thatsyour whole arm and FIVE fingers MR.!!!" Yusuke

cries after you. When you get to the nurses office, she takes your temperature and then asks if anyone else in your house is sick, which

brings on another stream of tears. She asks if there is anyone who can pick you up and you say yes. So you call Botan on your 'special'

cell phone and 15 minutes later, Botan shows up in the clinic. After prying Tom away from you, she leads you outside and around the

block. "Ok Ari, I flew here, I hope you don't mind?" Yoy shake your head, so she helps you on and then you both fly off back home.

When you get home you say a soft 'thank you.' and then make your way up the stairs, drop off your backpack and drum sticks.

Hermione sees you walk in and is about to ask why you are home so early, but she sees the pain in your face and lets you alone. You drop

your back back on your bed, take off your sneakers and head out towards Kuwa's room. You knock softly and the door is immeadiately

answered by Neville. "Ari? What are you doing here? Isn't it a school day?" 'Left early.' you say, stepping inside. Neville closes the

door behind you slowly, so he doesn't make any noise. You walk over to the bed Kuwa was laying on and sit down in a chair next to him.

He remained unconcious. 'Kazu, you missed school today.' you say. 'It wasn't the same without you there you know. I couldn't even

concentrate on our scale today because I was too worried about you, do you know that?!' You lay your head down on the bed and start

to cry again. stop crying! You are crying in clear view of everyone!!! your head screams, but you don't listen. "Ungggggggggg." Kuwa

groans. Your head shoots up, tear stained. 'K-kazu?' you ask hesitantly. "Ari? Why are you crying? Not over me I hope." Your eyes

glint with hope. 'Is it really you or am I asleep?' you ask. "I dunno. Hold on." he says, sitting up slowly. He then reaches out and pinches

your arm, quite hard. 'Ow. Guess it's real, you're really here!!!' "Yeah, but you shouldn't have cried over me, you should have known that

I'd be fine Ari. I wasn't dead, so I couldn't tell you myself." You nod, understanding that you should have listened to that voice. 'You

know, I just wasted two days crying over you?' you say. He sits up and gives you a hug, which you accept. You stay like that for a few

minutes, just clinging to him in fear that he would leave again.

At 5:00, Yusuke, Keiko and Kurama walked through the door. You walk out to see them, smiling a little bit. 'Which one of you got

detention?' you ask. Yusuke and Keiko raised their hands. 'Wow Keiko, that's two days for you. You sick or something?' "I'm guessing

you're feeling better. Is he awake?" asks Yusuke hurriedly rushing up the stairs. You nod your head so fast that your head starts to

pound. He smiles and then goes into the room. After a few minutes you hear. "OW! Urameshi what is your problem?1 Stop punching me

damnit!!!" About ten minutes later, yusuke walks back out with a satisfies smirk on his face. Kuwa comes stumbling back out with a black

eye. 'Why did you get detention again Keiko? Yusuke, you too, you've been good for a while.' At this, yusuke's and Keiko's eyes start to

twitch. "Well," began Keiko, "Yusuke and I walked past the teacher's lounge on our way out of school and Iwamoto and Akashi were in

tere. We heard then say Carter, so we stopped and listened." Then Yusuke picks up. "They were saying how you hanging out with me was

turning you into a delinquint just like me, and how, just like me, you left school early for no apparent reason at all, and got into fights

and talked back. They basically were comparing you to the old me." You blink. 'The _old_ you? As in drinking, smoking, extorting Yusuke?!'

you cry. "Yeah, that one.' he says snarling. Then Keiko picks up the story again. "So boviouslly, we couldn't just have let them say that,

and we came bursting throught the door. The two of them spun a round and started to demand why we were in there. So I said that they

had absolutely no right to compare you to the Yusuke who no longer roamed the halls of sarayashiki, but they could certainly compare

themselves to the slime that Yusuke used to hang out with." "And then I said that if they decided to insult you again, that Mr. Takenaka

would love to hear how his teachers were plotting on getting students in trouble on purpose." 'What do you mean? You never said

anything about getting me in trouble.' You say confused. "Oh, they were saying how they were going to do to you what Iwamoto did to

Yusuke a few years back, stealing things and putting them in your bag, and then they were going to change the answers on your test like

they did to Kuwabara, and **then** they were going to catch you holding hands with Tom or yelling at Kara and have you suspended for

either fighting or public display of affection." says Keiko, her eye starting to twitch again. 'But why? What the hell did I ever do to

them? I don't even skip any classes, least not when I know that they re important.' you muse, now thinking about it. In your whole school

career, you had a skipped a class 5 times. And all five of those classes, you would have been doing nothing but talking anyways, so you

didn't bother. Instead, you went to meet up with Yusuke and Kuwa on those occasions, just hanging out under a tree for an hour before

racing to your next classes. /I'm not encouraging skipping classes. So please don't do it. I almost did once, but then the class before I

did it, my teacher asked a girl who **had** skipped the period before where she had been, and had gotten a detention for it./ "Well, we

think it's because you associate with me." says Yusuke. "Oh, and that is why you never asked me, Yusuke. You think it's becasue she

associates with you, but I know why." says Keiko simply. "Really? Well then smarty pants, enlighten us." "I will. It is because Kara is

Mr. Iwamoto's niece." This time, your eyes start to twitch.'Nowonder Iwamoto always glares at me in the halls. Not only because I'm a

punk, but because i broke his poor niece's nose.' you say, realizing how it was all coming together. "Damn Keiko! How'd you find that out?

Why didn't you tell us?!" asks Yusuke. "Heheh, slipped my mind?" she says, sweatdropping. 'It's ok Keiko, not really as important as

Koenma conveniently forgettting to tell me that my former body had a sister!!!' you say starting to growl again. Keiko giggles and yuske

smirks at the thought. Kurama has long since left the room, probably to search out Hiei. Kuwa walks down the stairs and suddenly realizes

something. "Ari? What is going on with you and that Tom guy?" You blush a little bit. "Oh, the twerp is dating her. He even put his arm

around her today! The nerve of young kids thses days!!!" says yusuke. 'Ysuke, you sound like you're 90 years old!' you say, 'And besides,

why is it your business who I date and don't date mr. Urameshi?' "Because when they dump you, it'll give me a good excuse to beat

someone up!" You laugh. 'Qhat makes you think that Tom and i won't be together forever?' "Hahaha, because he's a guy genious! That

is what guys do, they date around! They don't stay with their first girlfriend forever!" 'Who said I was his first girlfriend? He just h

appens to be **my** first boyfriend.' "NANI?! You mean that he has broken other girl's hearts? Then that means that you are next on the

list Pyro!!!" 'Not neccessarily! They broke up with him! And as far as dating around, has Keiko not been your girlfriend since forever?

And even before you were dating, you never dated any other girl, so what makes Tom so different?!' you yell. He is taken aback by this

and starts to stammer. "Just don't be surprised _if_ he dumps you is all I'm saying Pyro." 'Ok, fine, whatever. I'll be in my room, I have

homework to do!!!' you say smiling again, but with a look of anguish of having to do homework in your eye. "OK have fun!!" says yusuke

sarcastically. You nod, then go back into your room. As you are doing your homework, your phone rings. /yeah, you have a telephone in

there/ 'Hello?' you ask surprisedly. "Hello, is Ariana there? This is Tom, from school?" 'Hey Tom, it's me!' you say laughing. "Oh, you

sound like you're feeling better. Are you?" 'Yeah, Kazuka made a great recovery. Doctors said it was a miracle on Earth.' "That's

wonderful! So no more sad face tomorrow? Happy Ariana which I have always adored?" 'You bet!' "So, watcha doing?" 'Oh, just this

awful homeowrk of ours- and talkingto you, What about you?' "UNfortunately the same- the homework I mean, not the talking." 'Ok

good, cause i was going to say...' The two of you talk for hours on end, until finally Hermione comes in and says say goodbye. So you do

so and then she disconnects the phone line. "Good, now get to work!" she says smugly and leaves with the cord. Grumbling you take your

place at your desk and begin your homework, once again.

Kouga

(So, how am I going to do this? I can't _kill_ Inuyasha, because then, Kagome would be distraught. Maybe, just maybe, I could get Kikyou

here, and then... No, she would try and kill him as well. URGH! Hm, maybe I could push him inot that Cheryl girl when kagome was

around... no, then she would leave all together.) a loud knock sounded on the other side of his door. (I'll think on this later) "Kouga?

Dinner is ready!" calls Cheryl from the other side.

the villain's office

"So, Voldemort, have you found a spell for our conceament yet?" asks Unasareru impatiently. "Yes and no. I have had a spell called the

chameleon charm, which will make us appear the same colors as our background, disguising us, but not completely hiding us. As far as

scent and sensing, there is nothing." "Well, it makes sense. Why would your find have a disillusinment spell for scent or sensing when

your kind don't need to worry about such things." says Sesshomaru. "Actually," says an irritated Voldemort, "Therenis a particularly

annoying auror who goes by Mad-eye Moody, he coukd sense us easily, as could the Potter brat because that stupid spell linked us

somehow." "But could you not use that to your advantage?" asks Naraku. "Yes I could, I have already if you remember correctly, last

year. When I lured him away from Hogwarts and his petty godfather died from a blow by his cousin." They all snickered. "We need

to find something to hide ourselves though." says Naraku.

with you

After you hung up with Tom and had /finally/ finished your homework, Hermione had come in with some sushi for you. You had never

really aquired a taste for it, and always ate vegetarian sushi. After you ate, you crawled into bed, exhasuted from the long day.

When the sun rises, your eyes snap open, surveying for any demon puppets or any remote danger at all. You see no danger until you

look behind you and see- Hermione, her mouth wide open and drool slowly falling out of her mouth onto the pillow. seems someone is

having a dream about a certain Mr. Weasley /you all nw who I mean, don't get the wrong idea/ You decide to have a little bit of fun,

and go into her mind watching her dream with her.

Hermione's dream:

_Hermione was walking inot a dark hallway with Ron, Harry, Neville, Ginny and Luna. They heard a cackling and then "Now that you _

_have fallen into my trap baby potty, you will die, just as my dear cousin had to!" an evil women emerged from the shadows and sent a _

_green flash towards the six of them. Luna was hit square in the chest and crumpled to the floor. Then a purple whip of light crashed into_

_Ron, sending him flying backwards into a wall, his head hanging down, obviouslly either unconcious or dead. "YOU BITCH!!!!" yells _

_Hermione, Harry, Ginny and Neville at the same time. "Stupefy!" yells Ginny. The woman laughs and jumps, avoiding the curse _

_completely, "Stupid girl, you thnk I could be caught with a spell as stupid as that? Ha!" Ginny's eyes narrow. "You hurt my brother. _

_You will be hurt now." and she lunges forward. "GINNY NO!" cries Hermone after her, trying to grab her arm but it is a lost cause. _

_"Crucio!" yelled the woman. "NO!" screams Neville jumping in the way and the curse hitting him head on. "Neville" screams Hermione, _

_watching yet another of her friends fall. His legs bent in towards his body and he began to twitch retchedly, rocking from side to side, _

_screaming. "AW how sweet, little Longbottom followed his parents' example and decided to be tortured to insanity. They are still in _

_St. Mungo's are they not?" "You wench! How dare you! First Luna, then Ron, adn then NEVILLE?! You will die now!!!" she screams. _

_"Gnny don't do it! You know what will happen!" "I don't care! I'm sorry Harry, I know you wanted to do this, but I need -" _

_"AVADA KEDAVRA!" screamed the woman and Ginny's face froze mdsentence. She sunk to her knees, then fell flat on the floor. _

_"AVADA KEDAVRA!" yells Harry, a brilliant green light shooting her in the chest. Her mouth formed an 'o' of surprise, almost as _

_Sirus's had done, and then fell to te floor. "H-harry?" choked out Hermone. "I'm not Harry." said a much deeper voice. "Hermione I _

_have something to tell you. Avada Kedavra." The green light shot out of Harry's wand agan, striking Hermione. Her face was contorted _

_as she fell to the floor._

You pulled out before the dream could finish. poor Hermione. Is she still feeling that? you wonder. Just then, she wakes up. 'Good

morning Hermione." you say cheerfully, so she doesn't know you were snooping. "Good morining Pyro!" she says, a grin on her face. You

are puzzled by the grin, so you read her mind again. (How could I tell her of these dreams? She'd think I was off my rocker, Harry?

Killing me? Ginny? Killing Bellatrix? My dream doesn't make sense. But that is all a dream anyways, it is just a dream. But how can I

keep up such a cheery countenance when Pyro or Ron are around? And if one of them isn't arond, the other is. But it hurts so much,

knowing it's partially my fault that Sirius is dead. Why is Ariana staring at me like that, she looks troubled.) You pull away. "Pyro,

you ok?" she asks. 'Mhm, sure am, how bout you?' "SSDD" she says. You laugh at her. The two of you had read a newer book by

Stephen King called Dreamcatcher and the main characters said that. /for those of you who haven't seen or read Dreamcatcher, or

don't know waht t means in general, it means same shit different day. I use it all the time, so does my mom/ "So what do you want to do

today?" asks Hermione. 'Um, Mia, today is a school day.' "Oh yeah! Oops, scatterbrained today I suppose." 'Naw, you go hang out with

Ron and Harry today. I heard Ginny, Luna and Neville were going to the park. Maybe you guys could hang out with Cheryl as well, though I doubt she's been dong anything but training.' "Why?" she asks. 'Look at who she likes Hermione. Come on! It's pretty obvious.' you say, as if it was plain as day, /which it was/ "OH right! Hiei, wasn't it?" 'Yeah, did i not tell you about him snooping in drawers no man should ever see?!' "oh yeah." she says, as if recalling the occasion. You shake your head in amusement. ''m going to get dressed, see ya in a few.' you say and walk over to your drawers, oull out your clothes and get dressed. Today, you were sporting a dark purple collared shirt, a little tight, but not too tight, because you discovered that the tighter clothes you wear, the less work the male population in your class gets done. You also put on a par of long black baggy pants with zip up sides /you know what type of pants I'm talking about I hope. The pants from Hot Topic, just plain black though/ You line your eyes and observe your nails, which were still all black. You smirk to yourself. oh WHAT must Kara think now that she isn't the center of every guy's attention. Especially Tom's you muse and smirk again. You pull on a pair of black and white Etnies. You leave your hair down, letting your bangs and hair fall over you shouldrs. You brush your teeth and such, then, you walk out and Hermione looks up. "I see somebody is dressing up today." she says. 'Who me? Now why would do that?' "AW I dunno. Maybe because you wan to be the smartest in your class and by doing so ou have to distract all the boys with your beauty." You laugh and then your head grows big with ego. 'Why would I do that? I already am the smartest in my class, I brainwashed them. Muahahahaha!!!!' She laughs with you and you grab your bag and skip downstairs. Along the way, you hum 'Duality' to yourself. Once everyone is downstairs, the usual routine goes on. Including dragging Kuwa out the door and throwing him into the van with your telekinesis.

At school, before the bell rings, you are sitting on a low stone wall, talking to Tom. Somebody taps Tom on the shoulder and he turns around and a guy named Usotsuki punches him in the jaw, sending him careening backwards. Usotsuki was a rugby /practically the equivilant to football, but more dangerous, they have it at my school/ player and a big /muscular/ guy as well. He had dusty brown hair and a square jaw. You knew he was a womaniser, and what pisses you off even more was that he had punched your boyfriend AND he was a grade nine. "Hey babe." he says in a voice that you guess was supposed to sound sexy, but to you it made him sound like he was stoned. 'May I help you?' you ask, eyes narrowing by the second. "Yeah actually, you can, by dumping that dirt Himura and being my girlfriend." he says matter of factly. 'Oh is that so?' you ask sweetly. "You bet." 'Well here is my answer Mr. Takada. I say I would rather burn in the pits of Hell for an eternity before I would EVER even CONSIDER being another one of your tramps. Why don't you go bother Kara Roland?' you ask, glaring at him. "Oh, I like them angry. Roland is just not as much fun as she should be. Somehow I sesne that you are." 'Wonderful. Now if you could just go find my evil twin, there would be a match made in heaven right there. Too bad.' you state and hop down from the ledge, going over to Tom who was getting up. You hadn't gone sooner to him because Usotsuki was right up next to you. "Hey Carter, I'm not done talking to you! You _will_ be my girlfriend."says Usotsuki menacingly. 'Wonderful, keep telling yourself that. If you don't, or you hurt Tom again, I'm just going to have to hurt you.' you state simply, helpng Tom the rest of the way up. Usotsuki says, "Fine, we'll settle that temper today. After school, meet me at the park. If I win, you date me." 'And if you loose?' "You still have the honor of dating me." 'Haha, no. If you loose, you can keep your ugly face and fists away from us, understand?' "FINE." And then he trudged away. Tom came up behind you. "Are you crazy? He'll crush you!!!" he cries. 'Nah, he isn't that tough, Kazuka has beaten him all the time, and Kazu just doesn't have anythng on my strength, soooooooooo' you reply smugly. "But you couldn't be stronger than your brother!!!" he says confusedly. 'Of course I'm not, I'm just smarter.' is your simple little reply.

At lunch, Yusuke is waiting for you /and Tom/ at the doors of the school. "So kid, I heard you have a fight this afternoon." He says. 'I sure do. Against Takada.' you reply proudly. Yusuke goes all starry eyed and the background drops away and is replaced by a blue background with boxing gloves flying around. "Aw, little Ariana is growing up. Her first fistfight over a date!!!!!!!" he cries jumping around. Tom is slowly backing away in fear, but you grab his arm. 'Relax,' you whisper to him, 'this is just proud brother mode.' When the three of you join Kurama, Keiko and Kuwa under the tree, Inuyasha is sitting in the branches, but he is wearing a hat to cover his ears. "Hey, who are-" 'Inuyasha?! What are you doing here?!' you cry, grabbing a branch and swinging yourself up. "Kagome is angry with me for trying to kill Kouga, so decided it would be fun to come and annoy you. Is that so wrong?" he asks innocently. 'YES!' you cry, pushing him backwards. He careens off fo the branch and he lands in a way similar to the sit method. You jump down and land on your feet, your hands touching the ground for support. "Bitch." he mutters, then sits up straight. "Nope, thats too cose to your species, if you and Kagome get married, then she would be half bitch, would she not?' you ask sweetly. Inuyasha's eye starts to twitch, but he doesn't say anything. "Um, Ari, what do you mean by that? I'm confused..." says Tom. You realize what you had said but then reply with, 'Oh, his name means _dog_ demon. A bitch is techniquely a female dog, SO if he marries his girlfriend, Kagome, she will sort of be like a female dog.' "Um, ok." he says, then sits down. "Did you guys hear? OUr little Ari is growing up! She has a fistfight today with Takada!!!" says Yusuke excitedly. "WHAT?! But he's really strong! It took me forver to beat him!!!" says Kuwa. 'Yes, but how long did it take me to beat _you_? Somehow I sense that he has the same intelligence level as you, so this should be easy as pie.' Kuwa growled, remembering the day that his own little sister had made a fool of him by tripping him up so bad.

After school, Ariana stood waiting in the park for Usotsuki to get there. "Wow. You actually showed up Carter, I'm impressed." he said from behind her. She turned arund. 'You're impressed now? Hm, I guess that's because you don't know how strong I am. Too bad. You'll just have to be impressed when your face is squashed into the dirt.' you say, taking fighting stance. He takes fighting stance as well, raising his fists menacingly.

Tune in next time for the next chapter. Somebody from Kouga's past is going to show up and they are going to be angry.

Now

**Review replies:**

**CrazygirlSarah:**

**U were right. I am a girl --'. RAre you happy that I used Inuyasha? It is hard to use 29 characters, but I'm doing my best. I've started a new story as well, so it's even harder. It is a Harry Potter fanfic if anyone is interested! NOW as far as Hiei goes, Ariana is not with Hiei, Cheryl is!!!! As far as Kuwabara bashing, I try not to do it too much, because he is one of my favorite characters, and everybody is always really mean to him in their stories. I'm sorry that you can't get chapter 10, but keep trying. I also see that you are another night owl. You go kiddo! I'm sorry to put you down about this, but 6th grade is not all it is cracked up to be. It IS fun switching classes and stuff, but you are like a kindergardener again. Everybody is like "Aw, look at the little sixth grader." and stuff like that. OH YEAH, please don't be so polite, it makes me feel really old.**

**Demondreamer:**

**I'm sorry for not replying to your review, but I have not had internet access for a while.... I put Iwamoto in specially for you for not replying ok? Thank you for the compliment though, I appreciate it!!**

**EVERYONE WHI READS THIS:**

**Please review!!!! Even if you flame me, I don't mind!!! Also, remember to check out my co-writer's story!!!! The url for it is in my profile!!!!!!**


	12. Unhappy Ayame and infatuated Kouga kinda...

Disclaimer: Ok, you'd better freaking know by now!!

For my comments on punctuation, please see the previous chapter

chapter 12

Unhappy Ayame and an Infatuated Koga

You turned around. 'You're impressed now? Hm, I guess that's because you don't know how strong I am. Too bad. You'll just have to be impressed when your face is squashed into the dirt.' you say, taking fighting stance. He takes fighting stance as well, raising his fists menacingly.

Usotsuki threw the first punch. "Sorry girly, don't have an honor code like your lousy brother." This made you angry and you jumped in swinging. 'Don't -call -my- brother-lousy-you-piece -of -shit -fighter!' you yelled, punching him between each pause. His nose was leaking blood and his eye was swollen a bit. "Ha! That the best you got? Or has your precious little weakling Tom been teaching you how to fight?" he asked, punching you in the stomach and swinging his leg, tripping you up, so he thought. His punch had stung, but you kicked out and tripped him down, jumping up afterwards. /sorry, ya'll know I suck at fight scenes/ Usotsuki hit his head, but got up again. "You sorry bitch. I was going easy on you, since you're so puny. Oh well, hope your brother doesn't mind you coming home in pieces, that is, after our date." 'HA! Who said anything about me losing? And don't you dare say a thing about Tom, your half the man he'll ever be, IF that.' you say, punching him in the stomach. You exerted a bit of energy this time, and he gasped. "Good shot." he said, "But here's a better one." He punched you in the stomach very hard. This one HURT. It felt like one of Hiei's punches. While you catch your breath, Usotsuki takes the oppurtunity to kick you in the ribs. You fall to your knees. GET UP! You're head was screaming. Don't let this half wit get the better of you! You stand up and punch at him again. This time, you use your energy and he flies backwards. He rose up again, but shakily. "How'd you? Nevermind." he runs at you and you step to the side. "Oopsy, did you miss?" you say, kicking him where it counts. He howls in pain, then gets up shakily. "Y-you win." he stutters, then fell forward. 'Is this all you wanted?' you ask, bending down and popping a kiss on his cheek. 'Well there ya go. Just remeber our deal buddy, or we'll have to do this again.' Then, you get up and walk away. Unfortunately, you didn't notice the flash when you popped the kiss on Usotsuki's cheek.

Kara

(Ha, this serves the bitch right, stealing my Tom from me! Hmph!) Kara walked into the school paper office. "Hello Kara." said Mr. Iwamoto, who ran the paper. "I have something that might interest you Uncle." said Kara, grinning devilishly, holding up the picture. "Nice work. It looks front page to me." Kara nodded to her uncle, then left the office and went to rejoin her minions.

you

You walked through the door, a broad grin on your face. "I'm guessing you won since you aren't moping anymore." said Yusuke, who had been waiting for you. 'I kicked his ass to the Makai and back.' you say proudly, then skip up the steps. You go into your room and Hermione isn't there. must be in Ron's room you muse. Despite yourself, you feel oddly tired, and fall asleep.

Hermione

After she said goodbye to Ron, she went into her room and found you asleep. "Guess the fight went well." she said to herself, then turned away, since it was dinner time. She knew better, by now, not to wake you when you were asleep.

The next time you opened your eyes was the next morning when your alarm clock rang. You still felt weak and tired, but got up and got dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. You carelessly brushed your hair and teeth, then grabbed your bag and drumsticks then walked downstairs. As you walked, you tried to make it seem like you felt refreshed, but knew your eyes were probably drooping. When you entered the kitchen, there was the usual conversation and nobody said anything about your countenance, just figured that you weren't fully awake.

On the ride to school, you thought you were going to pass out from sheer exhaustion, but you kept yourself awake. You skipped 1st, 2nd and 3rd periods to sleep, praying Akashi didn't nail you for it later. You managed to drag yourself to band, and were distraught to find you had a surprise chair test. It was on a piece called 'Mosaics' /my band class is playing this- BTW, no drums no more, there never was. I play flute!!/. You played the best you could, but still only scraped 3rd chair. After band, Tom didn't meet up with you, but walked right past you, so you walked to lunch alone. You didn't notice everyone whispering and pointing at you, but went to sit with Yusuke, Kuwa, Kurama and Keiko. Tom never joined you.

"So he broke up with you?" asked Kurama when you sat down alone. 'Huh?' you asked, completely confused. "Didn't you see?" he asked. "Have you even GONE to any classes today Ari?" asked Keiko. 'Band.' you replied. "Are you ok? You don't look all that great." said Kuwa. 'I'm fine, just a bit bored, I didn't feel like going to classes so I didn't. As far as Tom, is he even here today? I didn't see him.' you say. Yusuke points over to Tom's table. He was sitting there with his friends, an angry look on his face. 'I'm confused, what's going on?' you ask, looking around. Keiko sighs, then thrusts a paper into your hands. On the cover was a big picture of you kissing Usotsuki and the headline read- "8th Grade Genius? Or 8th Grade Seducer?"

'What the hell? Who wrote this?' you ask angrily. "Just read it." said Keiko I irritably.

_Ariana Carter, a 13 year old 8th grader at our fine school was seen kissing a 9th grader by the name of Usotsuki Takada. Takada had this to say. "She just came at me and demanded that I go out with her. I of course, would never go out with somebody younger than me, but she came onto me. I hope that she will be apprehended for these acts." The person who witnessed the kiss and snapped this evidential photograph was none other than 8th grader Kara Roland, a close friend of the accused _. "_I never could imagine why Ariana would do such a thing, but my camera does not lie."_ _The accused in reality already has a boyfriend by the name of Thomas Himura, but when asked for questioning, had no comment. One wonders whether Mr. Himura will continue seeing Ms. Carter after this evidence of unfaithfulness. I myself hope that Mr. Himura will choose his girlfriends more wisely, rather than just by looks, grades and talent.- Mr. M Iwamoto _/I dunno his initials/

'Why would somebody write this about me? I didn't even kiss him, I planted a virus on his cheek!' you cry, holding the paper at arms length. "Yes, but look who wrote it. Iwamoto." points out Yusuke. 'I know. This sucks ass.' you grumble. "Why don't you go and talk to Tom? He obviously hasn't heard you side of the story yet." suggests Kurama. 'Ok, I think I will. Thanks Shuichi.' you say, then get up and trudge over to his table. You were still tired, but you were determined to make Tom see that you were NOT cheating on him. Mark and Travis sneer at you as you walk up. 'Hey.' you say quietly. Tom turned around. "What do you want?" he asked angrily. 'To talk to you. You haven't heard how things played out on my side, have you? Besides, everyone knows Iwamoto has it out for me, as does Kara.' you point out desperately. "Really? Do they know? Or is this a cover up story? I'm sure you've tricked me for long enough." he said, then turned back around and started chatting with his friends again. That had been the last straw. You spun his seat around and slapped him. "I never should have stuck up for you. Usotsuki was right, you are a weakling, you can't even try and face your demons.' /no pun intended/ Tom glared down at you. Even sitting, he was a bit taller than you. "Listen, you have no idea what's going on with me, so back off. Go off with your precious Usotsuki, or better yet, that Inuyasha character, seems you're quite close to him." he said viciously. You glare up at him and slap him again. 'I wish I'd never met you.' you hiss, then storm out of the cafeteria. You walk out of the school and climb up a tree in the courtyard. You climb to the highest branch and sit down, staring at the sky. Why did I ever like him at all? I should've known, nobody wants to be seen with an ugly demon like me you think to yourself. He doesn't know you're a demon points out your brain. says who? you argue back, he could've known all along! whatever, Yusuke is coming Indeed, Yusuke came walking up a few moments later. "Hey!" he called up. "Now can I beat up the little snot rag?" 'Knock yourself out.' "Great, I've been waiting since the two of you started going out. 'Yusuke?' you ask. "Yeah?" 'Next time I act stupid and agree to date someone, stop me.' "You got it kid." 'Thanks.' You then jump down from the tree and go to your 6th period.

At the end of the day, you walked slowly out of your classroom and towards the car, since Kurama had driven that day. Soon after, Inuyasha jumped into the car. You had been dozing and when he jumped in, you shrieked and sprung up, hitting your head on the top of the car. 'Ow.' you mutter, rubbing your head. 'Why are you here?' you ask irritably. "I came to annoy you and to take you home. Yusuke and your brother got detention again and Kurama and Keiko have that thingy student council, so the called Botan and she volunteered me to get you, now let's go, that damned wolf is trying to convince Kagome that I suck and it's starting to piss me off, so I need to kick his ass." You nod, then climb out of the car. "We're running home. I'm not carrying you." he said, then started to run. You jogged after him, catching up in a matter of moments. He then picked up speed so you had to run to stay with his pace. Suddenly you felt really weak and your knees gave way. You fell forward, but instead of hitting the ground, you hit black. /ok I haven't had you pass out in a while, leave me alone!/

Inuyasha stopped running at the portal. "Hey shrimp, where are you?" he asked. There was no response. "Damn it." he muttered, then began to walk back, searching for you. After a while of walking Inuyasha trips over something and falls flat on his face. "Ow. Who did that?" he asked. /dense./ He looked down and saw you laying on the ground, face down. "This is starting to get old." he muttered, then picked you and your bag up and ran back and through the portal. He walked through the door, jumped up the steps and plopped you down on your bed. "Damn weak women." he muttered. Hermione walked up to him as he walked out of the room. "What were you doing in there?" she asked. "Putting the kid down, she's unconscious, I think." he replied, then continued on to his room. Hermione went back to her room faster and saw that Inuyasha had carelessly dropped you on the bed, your shoes still on and your head rolling over the side of the bed. "Stupid mutt." she muttered, taking off your shoes and pushes you all the way onto your bed. She then marches downstairs, and sees a person standing there. She has her hands on her hips and looks menacing. "Who the hell are you?" demands Hermione. "Ayame. Where's Kouga?" she growls. "He isn't here, what do you want with him?" "I want his head. Bastard left without saying where he was going." "Great, come with me NOW." said Hermione, then stormed down the hall towards Koenma's office.

Hermione, didn't bother knocking, but barged right in. "Koenma. Why is she here? She's looking for Kouga! She can't stay here Koenma! There is no more room." she ranted. "Hermione, I know that. Why don't you ask her where she is staying." suggested Koenma. "Ok fine. Do tell us... Ayame. Where Is it that you are staying?" asked Hermione. "I stay with the Eastern tribe. That is my home, but I cannot find my home." replied Ayame snarling. Just then, Kouga came in. "Ayame?" he asked, bewildered. "Yes my love!!!! I am here! Come back to me!" she said sweetly, jumping up and running at him. "Huh?" he said. "Come back to me my love! Forget the woes of heartbreak from the witch Kagome!! She is merely human!! You must come back! Or-or- or I'll kill myself!!' she shouted. "Great. I'll prepare the noose." said Kouga dryly. "FINE!! I'll kill your FRIENDS THEN!!!!!!!!" she shouted, racing out the door.

Well, I must say, that was an interesting chapter....... I ended it strangely, but hey, that's ok!!!! It really isn't a big deal, besides, how many of you people are evn reading this anymore?! Exactly my point. Why do I even keep writing this one? OOOOOOO well. Talk to you kiddos later. PLEASE read and review my story, considering I almost put this thing on hiatus!!!!!


	13. Reasoning

Disclaimer: this is that what chapter? That's right. There have been 13 of these now. I'm almost positive that I'm not Takahashi, Togashi or Rowling, how about you guys? My loyal readers...... or are you --;;

Starting this chapter, the story will be told from different points of view, because this whole 1st person thing is hard work....

Hard Knock Life

chapter 13

Reasoning

"FINE!! I'll kill your FRIENDS THEN!!!!!!!!" she shouted, racing out the door. Kouga looked panicked. What if she hurt Kagome?! Kouga ran after her, thanking Kami he hadn't lost his speed. He caught her quickly, and dragged her into a side room.

the villain's office

"Voldemort, we STILL await your answer. Is there even a spell in the making for the stealth we require?!" demands Naraku. "No, there is not, _Onigumo_." replied Voldemort nastily. "I'll just have to make one." he said. "Fine. Then GET TO IT." growled Unasareru. "The faster the girl's head is plastered on my wall. The happier I'll be...."

Koenma's Mansion- 3rd p.o.v

"Fucabare Bishounen!!!" screamed Cheryl, running through the house. "I AM NOT!" yelled Hiei , running away from her. It wasn't working well. "KISAMA!! LECHER!" she screeched. Hiei growled. "ONNA YOU ARE TREADING ON THIN ICE!!!" "And your's is thinner." she whispered in his ear. Everyone else had not dared trying to come between the pair, afraid of being decapitated. Ariana had now had enough of this mess, and was going to put a stop to it. Cheryl had been running after Hiei for a half hour, calling him various names. They were officially broken up as of right then. Cheryl had caught Hiei, ahem peeking.... and she was NOT happy at all. Ariana unsheathed her katana. "Ok Cheryl, that's right, slowly back away from the pervert- don't give me that look Hiei." said Ariana, walking towards them slowly, the blade glittering menacingly in the dim light. Cheryl growled. "You are so lucky I don't have my katana or else I'd-"started Cheryl. "You'd what? Slice me up?" asked Hiei dryly. "YEAH!" she yelled, running at him. Hiei unsheathed his katana and Ariana jumped between them. /I know, friend saves friend thingy again, deal with it/ Cheryl's fist conected with Ariana's jaw, and hiei's b;ade smashed into her lower back. "Fuck." she whispered, dropping to her knees. Cheryl looked at her urgently. "You fucking bastard. Look what you did." she snarled. Hiei growled right back. "What I DID? YOU might've broken her jaw!" he yelled back. "YOU COULD HAVE PARALYZED HER!" yelled Cheryl. She carefully picked Ariana up, and started to carry her down the hall.

Yukina had heard the commotion outside and felt sad. Her brother was fighting again, and he'd hurt another person because he had no restraint when he charged. If Ariana was para;yzed. She wouldn't be able to do anything, but if it was just a wound, she wold. Her jaw would be no problem at all. A moment later, she heard the anticipated knock on her door, and she allowed the three in, then went to work on Ariana. She quickly healed up the damage done to her jaw, whch wasn't a whole lot, then took a look at her back wound. It was not as deep as it could have been, it could have gone straight through her. THANKFULLY, Hiei hadn't hit her spinal chord and she healed the wound while Ariana lay grimacing as the skin regrew. "Thanks Yukina, for saving my skin- again. No thanks to either of you of course." muttered Ariana. Yukina looked up at them. "I'm surprised you can walk around with your fat heads sometimes. Deflating them will do you good. You are not the best fighters in the world, you are NOT perfect and overall, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BEAT PEOPLE UP EVERY FREAKING TIME YOU DON'T GET YOUR WAY MR ANTI-TRUST." she yelled. The three other demons were taken aback. "Yukina?" asked Hiei hesitantly. Yukina smiled her lovely smile. "Yes brother?" she asked sweetly. "Where did that come from?" he asked. "Ariana please leave." she instructed. Ariana complied. The sugary look on Yukina's face disappeared, as did the background and it was replaced by raging flames and dead smile faces floating around. "Because you hurt and kill people. You beat up people for the fun of it hiei, and Cheryl strides to try and keep up. Ariana is always caught in the middle of one of your stupid fights or I am and I am quite frankly SICK of it. You know for a fact that I am a pacifist, and yet you like having your fights over me with Kazuma or right outside my door. What do you expect Ariana to turn into if you're always committing evil acts around people?!"

Ariana pulled her ear away from the door. Is that what everyone thought? That if she witnessed too much evil, that she wouldn't be good? Did they really think SHE of all people would turn evil? Did Hermione or Ron think that? What about Yusuke? She shook her head. "I have to go to Koenma." she decided.

Kouga and Ayame 3rd person

"Ayame, you don't understand. I can't go back to you." sad Kouga, holding her shoulders firmly. She looked at him with big eyes. "But why Kouga? Do you still pine for the ningen miko? She will not last forever Kouga. At least, she won't last as long as you or I. Besides, has not the hanyou claimed her for himself?" she asked. Kouga grunted, slamming the wall with his fist. "Do not remind me Ayame. You know not what I feel." he said angrily. Ayame growled. "How dare you? I, not knowing what it feels like to be shunned aside by the one I love? I think you are sorely mistaken Kouga." she said bitterly. Suddenly, Kouga saw Ayame in a different light. She WAS rather, pretty, though nothing on Kagome, and was quite strong.... She would help him to have an heir, so when he died he had someone to give the pack to. "Ayame." he said softly, trailing a finger down her cheek. "Yes?" she asked slowly. Kouga leaned in and kissed her softly. "Let's go home." he said. Ayame brightened. "Really?!" she asked. Kouga nodded. "Just allow me a few farewells and we shall take our leave." he said. Ayame nodded, and followed him out of the door.

Koenma's office 3rd

Ariana knocked on the door to Koenma's office, and was surprised when Hermione answered the door. "Hermione, I nedd to speak to Koenma alone. If you don't mind that is." she said, noticing Hermione's expression. Hermione nodded, then left the room. "Yes Ariana? What's the matter?" asked Koenma. "It's just that... Well, I overheard Yukina, Cheryl and Hiei speaking, and theywere saying that if I'm exposed to too much evil, I might turn evil. Is that true?" she asked. Koenma nodded. "I'm afraid so. You have to be very careful, because you can be corrupted quite easily. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but that is why you don't go on cases with the boys. Not because I feel you aren't mature enough, but we can't risk it. Do you understand?" Ariana nodded feebly, then turned and left quietly. She walked up o hers and Hermione's room, popped in a cd and laid down on her bed. "I'm dangerous." she thought. "And I could kill everyone."


End file.
